The creator of the social profiles of the 17 October Movement is accused of incitement to commit crimes aggravated by the aim of terrorism. His wife is also under investigation for the same crimes. In the arrest decree, the prosecutor writes of a "project aimed at carrying out criminal acts, with subversive purposes". Expected tomorrow is the hearing to validate the arrest and interrogation by the investigating judge. The prosecutor's office is investigating possible links between the researcher and other groups.
Youssef Siher, the Italian researcher and political scientist with Moroccan origins, creator and administrator of the "October 17 Movement" social pages, will be able to defend himself from the charges against him in the hearing to validate his detention. The related interrogation should be held tomorrow, in prison, in front of the investigating judge Tiziana Landoni who will have to decide. The prosecutors in the request for validation of the arrest and application of the precautionary measure in prison, write that the man would have had such knowledge of IT tools as to be able to "develop a revolutionary strategy". And it is believed that, in addition to the risk of escape, there is also the risk of repeating the crime. The 30-year-old is accused of incitement to commit crimes with the aim of terrorism and organized violence in public demonstrations, and his wife, a cultural mediator resident in the Como area, is under investigation for the same crimes.
A WhatsApp chat also ended up at the center of investigations in the investigations against Siher. Investigators are probing the last contacts the researcher would have had before being tracked down and subjected to computer searches on the morning of October 24th. From his notebook, which the Postal Police were able to access because it was not protected by a password, unlike his telephone (he refused to disclose it), it appeared that the 30-year-old had also used that "device in question to connect to his WhatsAppweb". And on this page "we could find the presence of various messages from third parties requesting information on the demonstration on 24 October". However, there is no information on alleged contacts with pro-Russian hackers. Two scheduled messages were active on the Telegram Desktop application relating to the indications of the squares in which to concentrate" last Saturday. The 30-year-old, in fact, writes the Prosecutor's Office, had "scheduled the sending, for 2.31 pm and 3.31 pm respectively, of organizational instructions on the places, i.e. the various squares in Italy, where the members of the aforementioned Telegram group and their followers should have gathered". Messages which, however, never went off, because searches and seizures began against him.
According to the Milan prosecutors, there are no state entities or organizations behind the "October 17 Movement" but only Siher. With those messages spread on Telegram and Instagram which could potentially reach 150 thousand people, the prosecutor writes in the arrest decree with which he ordered his imprisonment, the man would have created "a state of intimidation of the population". And he would have taken advantage of what happened in the square last weekend to implement a "project aimed at carrying out criminal acts, with subversive purposes". In short, say the prosecutors, the objective was to "generate terror in the population" and this is why he is charged with the aggravating circumstance of terrorism.
On social media Siher called for "permanent mobilization every Saturday. Until the fall of this thieving government", summoning demonstrators to the squares of eight cities. The researcher, born in the Brescia area but having long gravitated to Milan, has not yet been questioned by prosecutors: the technical-IT operations were also prolonged due to his attitude, which was not exactly collaborative. The processes of data extraction and analysis by the Postal Police, which took place in his presence and that of a lawyer, therefore lasted a long time.
At present there are no direct connections between Siher and his wife and the perpetrators of the clashes and looting which on Saturday 17 October and the following day in Piazza Duomo and the nearby streets saw many very young boys as protagonists. The woman was with her husband in a friend's apartment in Corvetto and it was thanks to her cell phone that investigators managed to locate Siher, who instead had his phone turned off. During the searches, maps of the cities where the demonstrations were planned were found, a further element that would confirm that he was indeed behind the Movement's page.
However, another series of elements are all being examined by Digos agents and the Flying Squad. The Anti-Terrorism investigations continue to ascertain or exclude any connections or in-person meetings with those responsible for the weekend of unrest in Milan. And Siher is also of interest to Genoese investigators, with the prosecutor's office investigating possible links between the researcher and the group arrested in the investigation of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate into the alleged financing of Hamas through a network of charities.
