BOLZANO. It was considered by investigators to be “the largest anti-terrorism operation of the last 20 years”. An organization structured through a vast network of cells, which Mullah Krekar directed via the internet from the prison in Norway where he was detained. The objectives? Overthrow the government of Iraqi Kurdistan to replace it with a theocratic state and carry out acts of violence in Europe by sending would-be fighters.
The group, now dismantled, was at the center of a major investigation by the Ros in 2015. Seventeen people – sixteen Kurdish citizens and one Kosovar – who had chosen Merano as a place of secret meetings and a crossroads for aspiring jihadists. The case ended with four sentences: six years for Abdul Rahman Nauroz, four for Eldin Hodza, Abdula Salih Ali and Hasan Saman Jalal. The latter, 40 years old, had never left Alto Adige. After serving another sentence for family abuse, he hid in a two-room apartment in Viale Trento, together with a compatriot.
He was at large for a handful of days: on Thursday the police captured him. Yesterday the police commissioner Paolo Sartori issued an expulsion order against him. And already during the night he was transferred by Digos and Immigration Office agents to the CPR in Gradisca d’Isonzo (Gorizia). He will remain there for the shortest time possible, waiting to be boarded as soon as possible on a direct flight to his country of origin. Jalal’s role The anti-terrorist investigation made it possible to bring down an organization aimed at recruiting and radicalizing militants via the web. Then the military carried out numerous searches in the provinces of Bolzano, Parma and Brescia, but also abroad in Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. Abdul Rahman Nauroz, one of those arrested in the ROS raid, was particularly active due to the “lessons” he held in his apartment in Merano.
The aim was to convince his students, including Hasan Saman Jalal, to participate in armed war or terrorist actions planned as suicides. It should be noted that Jalal’s intention never translated into reality, even though he was reportedly trained militarily. Other members of “Rawti Shax” – this is the name of the organization – managed to reach the war zones between Syria and Iraq. The mistreatment The 40-year-old would have had contacts in the capital for over a decade: in 2008 he was granted the status of political refugee, which was later revoked by the National Commission for the right to asylum. In 2015 he therefore found refuge in Bolzano where he was sentenced to four years in prison by the Court of Trento for the crime of criminal association with the aim of terrorism.
In 2021 he presented a second application for international protection, which the Verona Territorial Commission rejected. The Court of Venice subsequently rejected the appeal in consideration of the seriousness of the accusations that emerged, deeming that there was no risk in the case of repatriation. In the same year he was at the center of an ugly affair linked to mistreatment in the family: sentenced to four years and ten months in prison by the Court of Bolzano, he was released from prison thanks to a reduced sentence. Yesterday, after a week spent in Viale Trento, he was expelled. The work of DigosAlthough little is said about it, the daily commitment of the police forces is also focused on the phenomenon of terrorism.
«Police activity to combat subversion is aimed at preventing foreign subjects from taking root in our territory, often without the necessary qualifications to reside in our country. With their behavior they cause particular social alarm and compromise civil coexistence. And it is essential to implement these measures towards those who, as in this case, represent a concrete and current threat to the security of the State and citizens”, concluded Commissioner Sartori.
