ITALIAN POLICE ARREST MACEDONIAN NATIONALS ON "ISLAMIC EXTREMISM" CHARGES
BBC Monitoring International Reports - December 1, 2006 Friday

Text of report by Macedonian A1 TV website on 1 December

The homes of 38 people from the Balkans and Austria, the majority of whom were Bosnian and Macedonian nationals, have been searched in a major action conducted by the Italian police in the country's northeastern part.

According to the judicial bodies, the people from Trieste [whose homes were searched] were members of an extremist Islamist cell operating in Italy and the Balkans. They had been in contact with suspected terrorists in the Balkans and other European countries.

In addition to charges of international terrorism, the suspects will also face charges related to human trafficking. In the 18-month-long investigation, which involved 150 agents, the Italian police found that the suspects were also part of an international militant recruitment network.

The group is said to have called for Jihad by posting fundamentalist messages on the internet and in radio programmes and magazines.

Macedonian security sources have told A1 Television that they have findings pointing to Macedonian nationals' links to radical Islamist structures in Italy and other Western countries, from which Italy has not yet sought help in tackling the group.

The initial contacts for the recruitment of Islamic activists in the country are carried out through humanitarian organizations funded by Saudi Arabia-or Yemen-based Islamic centres. These organizations are active in the country's western part, in the areas surrounding Tetovo, Gostivar, Debar, and Struga.

According to A1's findings, Macedonian nationals of ethnic Albanian origin as well as Macedonian muslims and Turks who have been going to work to Italy a lot in the past years, are among those arrested in Italy.

Source: A1 TV website, Skopje, in Macedonian 0000 gmt 1 Dec 06

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Copyright 2006 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

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