Italian PM slams ‘shameful’ release of alleged protest organizer

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday slammed a “shameful” decision by a judge dismissing accusations against a campaigner arrested on terrorism charges for allegedly seeking to organize violent protests.

The man, 30-year-old Youssef Siher, was arrested on October 24 and accused by prosecutors of being behind the social media accounts of the anti-government “October 17 Movement.”

That was a reference to protests by young people in Milan on October 17 and 18 that turned violent. Several shops in the city were vandalized and looted by protesters.

Siher had been charged by prosecutors with “incitement to commit offenses with the aggravating circumstance of terrorism and organized violence during a demonstration.”

But judge Tiziana Landoni on Wednesday dismissed the prosecutors’ case against Siher, saying he had never instigated violence and ordered his immediate release, Italian media reported.

In a video on X, Meloni said: “I’ll say it bluntly: I consider shameful the decision by the preliminary investigations judge in Milan not to validate the arrest.”

She called the decision a “humiliation” for “all those who strive to protect decent people from the risk of seeing their cities and their businesses destroyed.”