Suspected IS recruiter expelled from Italy

An Albanian national was repatriated to his home country from Italy's Milan on suspicion of recruiting foreign fighters for the Islamic State (IS), local reports said on Monday.

The man, Alban Elezi, was put on a commercial flight from Milan to Tirana and will not be allowed to re-enter Schengen visa-free area for the next five years.

He was released on Friday, months after his arrest in March, after a court in Brescia, a city not far from Milan in northern Italy, ruled there was not enough evidence to try him, according to local newspaper Il Giornale di Brescia.

Elezi was allegedly part of an association suspected of recruiting terrorists to be sent to fight in Syria. Among them there was a Moroccan citizen, Anas El Abboubi, who left Italy for Syria in 2013, according to Italian investigators.

Monday's expulsion was the latest in a series of measures carried out by Italian authorities against Islamic terrorism suspects in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, police arrested 10 people in various cities of Italy allegedly connected to terrorist organizations, of whom five were also Albanians ready to leave for Syria to join terrorist fighters.

Italy has tightened anti-terrorist measures and accelerated moves to stop the flow of foreign fighters in the wake of recent terror attacks in other European countries.

Security controls have been especially increased around schools, monuments, public offices, shopping malls, places of worship, broadcasters, embassies and Jewish suburbs in the country's major cities. Endit