Overview
- Prosecutors and the Digos police arrested Zakaria Ben Haddi after social posts on May 30 that praised martyrdom and said things like “I am doing the right thing” and “tomorrow I will make Italy better,” prompting an urgent fermo and transfer to pretrial custody.
- A Milan judge on Tuesday, June 2, convalidated the custody order, citing “gravi indizi di colpevolezza” and describing an embryonic but real adherence to the criminal project of ISIS.
- Investigators say they seized digital evidence from Instagram and TikTok that includes nine videos and about 201 reposts of jihadist propaganda plus a video of the Modena attack, and they found a plane ticket dated June 9 to Morocco.
- Ben Haddi told magistrates he shared material for “divulgative” purposes and that the Morocco ticket was for an exam, but the court and prosecutors say his pattern of posts and online links made an immediate, emulative act plausible.
- Authorities place the case inside a wider Milan probe that has uncovered a so‑called “white jihad” mixing jihadist material with neo‑Nazi and supremacist content, a finding that has sharpened police monitoring of encrypted chats and prompted political debate over public security and integration.