Country Reports on Terrorism 2014 - Italy

Overview: Italy investigated and prosecuted terrorist suspects, dismantled suspected terrorist-related cells within its borders, and maintained a high level of professional cooperation with the United States and international partners. Terrorist and criminal activity by domestic anarchists and other violent extremists also remained a threat. Italy is a member of the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), conducting air strikes in Iraq, contributing military support, trainers, and humanitarian assistance to the crises in Iraq and Syria, engagement with foreign leaders – including Middle East partners – in support of the coalition, and enhanced efforts to identify, decrease, and disrupt the flow of foreign terrorist fighters. Italy is implementing UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 2170 and 2178 to mitigate the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters and to restrict terrorist financing. Italy promoted Europol as a venue for EU-level coordination of law enforcement and intelligence cooperation across national borders. Italian law enforcement's primary focus has been on preventing returning foreign terrorist fighters from using Italy to create bases for international operations and recruitment. As a founding member of the Global Counterterrorism Fund (GCTF), and consistent with its implementation of UNSCRs 2170 and 2178, Italy has endorsed the GCTF Memorandum on Good Practices for a More Effective Response to the Foreign Terrorist Fighter Phenomenon. On December 11-12, 2014, it hosted in Rome a joint GCTF-UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) workshop on challenges and lessons learned in reintegrating returning foreign terrorist fighters.

2014 Terrorist Incidents: Representative incidents included:

• On January 13, a Democratic Party Senator, Stefano Esposito, who was in favor of the construction of a controversial high speed railway Turin-Lyon, discovered three rudimentary explosive devices (Molotov cocktails) and a threatening note outside of his residence in Turin.

• On January 24, a small bomb exploded outside the office of a foundation linked to the French Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, damaging three cars and some windows. The incident occurred on the same day of the meeting between the French President and the Pope in Rome.

• On June 10, an anarchist group was considered responsible for an attack against an office of the Democratic Party in Florence that resulted in limited damages to the façade of the building.

• On July 1, an explosive device detonated outside the office of the right-wing association Casa Pound in Bologna, and another small bomb was found unexploded outside of the office of the PD, also in Bologna.

• On December 21, a bottle of flammable liquid exploded near the Rome-Florence high-speed train line, damaging electrical cables and causing train traffic to halt. A second bottle did not explode. The attack is being attributed to a violent anti-high-speed train group known as NO TAV. The attack follows two similar incidents using rudimentary explosive devices on high speed train lines on December 2 and December 18.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Italian government continued to make use of reinforced counterterrorism legislation enacted in 2005 that facilitates detention of suspects, mandates arrest for crimes involving terrorism, and expedites procedures for expelling persons suspected of terrorist activities. At year's end, the Government of Italy was drafting new legislation that would criminalize the travel of persons and export of materiel in support of armed conflict; Italy currently only criminalizes the recruitment of combatants.

Italy's long history of countering both organized crime and violent ideological movements has given it a strong legacy in fighting internal threats to security, and authorities are leveraging those capabilities to counter terrorist recruitment, radicalization to violence, and networking. The Police, the ROS Carabinieri (gendarmerie), Guardia di Finanza, other specialized law enforcement agencies, and the intelligence services coordinated their counterterrorism efforts and met regularly. Italian judges have the authority to swiftly expel non-citizens for "seriously disturbing public order, endangering national security, or religious discrimination."

The Italian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) continued to implement a Memorandum of Cooperation with the United States, allowing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to conduct aviation security assessments at three Italian commercial airports. Italy demonstrated its capability to quickly enhance measures to counter threats against civil aviation; in 2014, Italy worked with the TSA to increase measures at major commercial airports to counter the threat of various types of improvised explosive devices. In 2014, Italy received a record number – over 150,000 – of refugees, asylum-seekers and economic migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, presenting serious challenges to the capacity of Italian border security officials to comprehensively screen all incoming migrants. For most of the year, Italy continued an anti-smuggling and search and rescue operation, called Mare Nostrum; the operation has formally wound down in favor of a multination EU FRONTEX border security operation called Triton. Senior Italian officials have indicated publicly they do not believe the Mediterranean exodus has been used by terrorists to penetrate Italy. The government has not reported any returning foreign terrorist fighters among these arrivals, but Italian authorities and the Italian public remained sensitive to this risk and were especially concerned about an increasingly unsecure Libya. EU data privacy concerns limit the sharing of biometric data with the United States.

Significant law enforcement actions related to counterterrorism included:

• On March 14, a Turin court sentenced two NO TAV (anti high-speed train) activists, Davide Forgione and Paolo Rossi, to two years and two months in prison. They had been arrested in August 2013 in a car containing materials meant to be used to make explosive devices.

• On April 2, police arrested 24 persons, including a former parliamentarian, accused of planning violent actions to claim the independence of the Veneto region.

• On May 30, Claudio Alberto, a NO TAV militant, was convicted and sentenced to four months' imprisonment for intimidation against a worker outside of a high speed railroad construction site; Alberto and three other NO TAV members were sentenced to three years and six months in jail, but the court rejected the charges of terrorism over the objection of the government, resulting in the milder verdict. Other NO TAV activists were arrested in July 2014, accused of violence against a public officer, public damages, and the use of rudimentary explosive devices in Milan, Turin, and Lecce.

• On June 18, a Rome judge sentenced two Informal Anarchist Federation (IAF) affiliates, Gianula Iacovacci and Antonio Antonacci, to six years, and to three years and eight months, respectively for 13 violent attacks against the offices of multinational corporations, banks, and a landfill in the province of Rome.

• On July 11, a Genoa Court of Appeals upheld the 2013 conviction of Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai to 10 and nine years, respectively, in prison for a 2012 kneecapping attack against Roberto Adinolfi, Chief Executive Officer of the Ansaldo nuclear engineering company. The IAF had claimed responsibility for the incident.

• On August 27, authorities announced that they had been conducting an investigation on five persons suspected of being close to violent Islamist extremist groups. Some of them might have recruited foreign terrorist fighters willing to fight in Syria and Iraq.

• On October 14, the prefecture of Naples expelled a French citizen who repeatedly expressed approval for violent Islamist extremist movements.

• On November 11, police arrested a Tunisian man suspected of having established an Ansar al-Shari'a cell. During a random inspection of a car, the man tried to fire a bullet at police officers and escape. Investigators found an original ISIL flag in the caravan where alleged cell members lived. Another Tunisian member of the same group, suspected of drug trafficking, disappeared after the arrest of his associate.

• On December 22, 14 people were arrested and 31 placed under investigation in L'Aquila (Abruzzo) accused of domestic terrorism. The suspects allegedly belonged to a far-right movement ideologically inspired by the former Italian, neo-fascist "New Order" movement. The suspects were accused of incitement of terrorism, subversion of democracy, conspiracy, discrimination, and of racial, ethnic, and religious violence directed at state objectives. The charges documented repeated attempts by the group to procure weapons through robbery or from abroad.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Italy is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL), a FATF-style regional body (FSRB); it has observer status with the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, an FSRB. Italy cooperated with foreign governments, including the United States, as an active member of the FATF and the Egmont Group. Italy also participated in the UNSCR 1267/1989 and 1988 designation process both as a sponsoring and co-sponsoring nation. Italy is co-chair of the ISIL Counter Finance Group (ICFG).

The Italian judiciary and financial police (Guardia di Finanza) continued to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals and organizations and to prosecute terrorist financing cases. In addition, Italy carried out several counterterrorism operations and prevented international money transfers to terrorist groups. Judicial and law enforcement efforts to counter terrorist financing included monitoring financial transactions such as financial services companies specializing in wire transfers, bank transfers, pre-paid electronic cards, payments on fraudulent invoices, and cash-in-transit. Cash-in-transit to countries involved in terrorist activity has decreased slightly.

Italy does not require that non-profit organizations send suspicious transaction reports. Reporting entities are, however, required to consider the specific money laundering and terrorist financing risks when entering in a relationship or carrying out transactions that involve non-profit organizations.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2014 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume 2, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Regional and International Cooperation: Italy is a founding member of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and actively participates in its work. In its capacity as EU President, Italy hosted a December 11-12 GCTF Expert Workshop on Reintegrating Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Challenges and Lessons Learned. Italy also supported counterterrorism efforts through the G-7 Roma-Lyon Group, the OSCE, NATO, the UN, and the EU. The Italian government and law enforcement, in particular the Carabinieri, engaged actively in international law enforcement and military capacity building programs.

Countering Radicalization to Violence and Violent Extremism: Italy has a long history of countering organized crime and radical ideological movements. Italy's countering violent extremism toolkit includes an anti-radicalization program in its prison system. The Ministry of Justice's Prison Police continued financing counter-radicalization programs to train 120 agents working in the four prisons where persons convicted of terrorism were incarcerated. Prison Police worked with Italy's largest Muslim confederation to assist in de-radicalization efforts within the prisons. Outside of prison, Italy's diverse immigrant community and well-pronounced regional distinctions made it difficult for terrorist recruiters to employ broad-based or counter-state narratives. To the extent domestic recruitment of violent Islamist extremists occurs, it appears largely concentrated in the more industrialized North, although there were unconfirmed media reports of alleged foreign terrorist fighters emerging from Rome and Naples.