Italy deports Tunisian suspected of links to Berlin attacker

Italy has expelled a Tunisian who may have had links with the man who killed 12 people in Berlin when he ploughed a truck through a busy Christmas market, the Italian interior ministry said today.

The Tunisian, a resident of Latina near Rome, was identified in investigations launched in the wake of the 19 December Berlin attack, the ministry said in a statement.

The 37-year-old man was the owner of a telephone whose number was found among the contacts of Anis Amri, the Berlin attacker, it said.

Amri killed 12 people when he ploughed a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin. He was killed in a shootout with police near Milan on 23 December.

Amri came to Italy by boat in 2011 and spent almost four years in jail there before being ordered out of the country in 2015. He then went to Germany who attempted to have him deported back to Tunisia, but Tunis delayed issuing his paperwork leading to Amri eventually being released.

The expelled Tunisian’s phone number was also linked to a Facebook profile pointing to his support of so-called jihadist ideology and connections with people supporting Daesh extremists, the ministry said.

The ministry said Italy had expelled 153 people suspected of religious extremism since January 2015.