(ANSA) - A controversial Muslim preacher once accused of defending Osama bin Laden has been expelled from Italy, the Italian Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry said Moroccan-born Bouriqi Bouchta, the self-proclaimed imam of the northern city of Turin, had been expelled from the country in line with recent anti-terrorism norms.
The 40-year-old father of three, who has been living in Turin since 1986, was believed to have been deported back to Morocco.
The imam's wife told reporters that police arrived at the family's home in the multi-ethnic Turin neighbourhood of Porta Palazzo last night and took Bouchta away. "They woke us up in the middle of the night and took him away. I haven't seen him since and have no idea what's happened to him," said his shaken wife.
Bouchta, who runs a popular butcher's shop in Porta Palazzo, has long been accused of radicalism and there have been frequent calls for his expulsion. He won notoriety in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States with comments viewed as supporting al-Qaeda leader bin Laden. The imam publicly argued that the case against bin Laden was not proven and that many shared the exiled Saudi's professed belief that the US had been struck by "a divine curse" in the terror attacks.
He then came under fire for condemning the subsequent US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and demanding that Muslim women be allowed to appear in ID photographs wearing their veils.
The Northern League, a populist party in the centre-right government which is often viewed as
anti-immigrant, has been one of the imam's fiercest critics. The League and Bouchta recently crossed swords after the party organised a screening in Turin of Submission, a controversial short film about abuse of Muslim women directed by murdered Dutch director Theo van Gogh.
Local League members praised the decision to expel the preacher."This is a concrete sign of the government's will to firmly combat the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism in Italy," they said.
But other representatives of Italy's Muslim community have defended Bouchta as a moderate leader who actively supports dialogue between Muslims and Christians. A prominent Muslim prayer centre in Milan - which itself has been under the spotlight for alleged links with Islamic
terrorist suspects - condemned the decision to deport Bouchta.
The chairman of the Viale Jenner Islamic institute, Abdel Hamid Shaari, said the expulsion was "surprising, hurried and apparently only concerned matters of opinion, which has nothing to do with terrorism." He stressed that Bouchta was the first major imam to be expelled from Italy and expressed concern that he himself might also be required to leave.
"Anybody can be expelled because there is no possibility of defending oneself against such measures," Shaari said.
In November 2003, the Italian authorities expelled a Senegalese imam living in a small town near Turin who had ties with Bouchta and who had expressed admiration for bin Laden. Mamour Fall, the imam of Carmagnola, was deported after telling the Italian press that he had known there would be an attack on the Italian contingent serving in Nassiriya in southern Iraq.
Twelve Italian soldiers and five Carabinieri were killed in a massive car bomb in Nassiriya in November 2003 that also killed two Italian civilians and nine Iraqis. Mamour also told the press that he was a "follower" of bin Laden to whom he was "bound by a blood pact."
An Italian court later ruled that Mamour had been "illegally" deported. The regional court in Lazio ruled in December 2004 that Mamour had been wrongly expelled because his comments only
represented his personal views. Last year, Italy expelled three other imams, an Algerian
living in Rome, a Moroccan living in Varese and a Tunisian living in Como.
