A Syrian who was caught in Italy attempting to board a flight to Malta with a fake passport last November, had served as an Islamic State police officer and had come to Europe with the aim of committing violent acts of terrorism, a court in the northern Italian city of Brescia has heard.

Thirty-one-year-old Alali Faowaw was arrested at Bergamo airport as he was about to board a flight to Malta in the lead up to last November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Valletta Migration Summit.

In court on Friday, Mr Faowaw’s defence did not deny the accusation and instead argued that he could not be tried in Italy for terrorism offences he allegedly committed in another country, in this case Syria.

Mr Faowaw is facing charges of international terrorism. According to Italian prosecutor Silvia Bonardi, he “participated in the ISIS international terrorist organisation with the scope of committing violent acts of terrorism in the European Union, where, more precisely, he formed part of the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s police corps, he carried a falsified passport on Italian territory which he was to use to reach Malta, from where he could have likely travelled to other EU destinations”.  He also faces charges of entering Europe to recruit terrorists.

Mr Faowaw had initially been charged only with being in possession of a false passport, but after Italian investigators reviewed photographs of a flag bearing the Islamic State motto and of Faowaw in Islamic State gear taken from his mobile telephone, they suspected that he formed part of the Islamic State.

When he first appeared in court, Mr Faowaw said that he had suffered at the hands of the Islamic State when jihadists took over the town of Raqqa in Syria. He testified that he had returned to Raqqa after living in Greece for two years, where he also played for an amateur football team.

He claimed he had been forced to work as a police officer and that he was later accused of corruption and sentenced to a fine and 100 lashes.

He was one of four Syrians caught last November before boarding planes bound for Malta with fake passports. Two had been caught in Bergamo and two at Rome’s Ciampino airport. The incidents sparked terrorism fears before the two major events that had brought dozens of world leaders to Malta last November.

The Italian authorities believe the Somali arrested last month, who is being charged with aiding illegal immigration and aiding international terrorism suspects, was responsible for providing logistical support to the four Syrians caught last November before boarding planes bound for Malta with fake passports.

The Somali is believed to be a key member of a migrant trafficking ring that had brought as many as 250 people, mainly of Syrian and Somali nationalities, to Malta.

It was the anti-terrorism prosecutors in the northern Italian town of Brescia that had requested the man's arrest, alleging he supplied false documents to various people for entry into Italy and other European countries including Malta.

Italian police said that the Somali man – identified as Ali Awil Khadar, born on 1 January 1985 – was detained on suspicions of aiding illegal immigration and of also assisting persons involved in terrorist associations.

He was also found in possession of Malta-issued travel papers for political refugees, issued by the Maltese authorities, as well as a suspected fake Maltese passport, according to Italian media reports.

Images released by the Italian authorities showed the Somali suspect at Bergamo airport travelling right behind the two Syrians who had been stopped at passport control. The Somali, unlike the Syrians he was escorting, managed to board the plane and come to Malta. A massive manhunt was then mounted for the Somali in Malta but he must have eluded the Maltese police and somehow managed to return to Italy.

 

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