Youssef Siher, the Italian researcher of Moroccan origins, arrested last Saturday night in his capacity as administrator of the Telegram channel 'Movimento 17 ottobre' opened after two days of looting and devastation in Milan, is a free man .
Milan's preliminary investigations judge Tiziana Landoni filed the order late this morning, which did not validate the thirty-year-old's arrest and released him , rejecting the request made by the Prosecutor's Office that he be held in prison for precautionary custody.
Prosecutors have charged him and his wife, who is under investigation at large, with incitement to commit crime, aggravated by terrorism, and organized violence during a street demonstration.
The judge evidently accepted the defense's argument, with lawyers Benedetto Ciccarone and Yasmina Abu Sharar having completely contested the public prosecutors' reconstruction and the existence of the precautionary requirements .
Through the content posted on the Telegram chat, Siher expressed "methods of protest against current government policies" and "called for actions of civil disobedience," which, however, "do not translate into the adoption of violent or more generally criminal behavior, but rather into the mere planning of weekly demonstrations, capable of raising awareness and involving the greatest possible number of people," the investigating judge wrote in the order, not agreeing with the "serious indications of guilt" for the crimes charged.
Furthermore, the researcher "had no intention of evading the investigation, of which he appears to have been unaware, nor of making himself untraceable." The judge, deeming there to be no risk of flight, reconstructed the hours preceding the search and arrest of Shier and his wife, who was under investigation at large. The evening before, they had gone from their home outside Milan to a friend's house in the Corvetto area. And as further proof of the lack of intent to evade investigation, Judge Landoni observed that "among other things, the same request for confirmation of arrest alleges that Shier had gone to his friend's house in anticipation of the demonstration organized the following day."
Siher's "handbook for street defense," the investigating judge writes, "did not contain any references to offensive tools to be used during demonstrations against the police, nor instructions on how to react to tear gas being fired." Furthermore, the judge further clarifies, analyzing the various messages in the group, that Siher "does not appear to have advocated or in any way supported the violent behavior mentioned" by other users, who spoke of violent actions to be carried out "against banks, public buildings, RAI repeaters." The judge explains all the contents of that "handbook," clarifying that they did not incite offensive actions, but were essentially defensive and indeed "when faced with behavior" by the police, "the protesters were urged not to respond with violent actions." Such were the invitations to "back away" or to "remain still and calm" in the event of tear gas being fired . Siher never "proposed the implementation of violent actions", but "in fact limited himself to promoting a collective, 'conscious' protest mobilization" against the government.
Siher's questioning, which yesterday was also attended by prosecutor Francesca Crupi, who is leading the investigation along with prosecutor Marcello Viola, was almost a formality: he, appearing somewhat disoriented and frightened, exercised his right to remain silent, while his lawyers contested the charges on legal grounds. "He did nothing. There was no incitement to violence, there is no terrorism, there is no crime," they explained outside San Vittore, after the brief face-to-face meeting with the judge.
The Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni took a forceful stance, calling the Milan investigating judge's decision "shameful" in a video posted on social media . "I think this is an unbearable disgrace to the work of law enforcement, investigators, the Ministry of the Interior, and, in general, all those who work to protect decent people from the risk of seeing their cities and businesses devastated."
(Unioneonline)