It has emerged that Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin lorry attack, was arrested in Italy in 2011.
ADVERTISEMENTIt has emerged that Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin lorry attack, was arrested in Italy in 2011.
He was convicted for setting fire to a refugee camp, and served four years in jail for arson.
It is understood that his fingerprints taken in Italy allowed German police to identify Amri.
Amri’s brother says it was this time in jail that radicalised the Tunisian:
“(Before 2011) he didn’t pray or anything. He went to Italy and there he had some problems. He was taken to a refugee shelter where there was a fire. After that he spent four years in prison. In that period he changed a lot. He went to prison being one kind of man and he left being a different kind of man”.
In the streets of Oueslatia where Amri grew up, the emotion is clear to see. It is a close-knit community, where the Amri family say everyone knew Anis.
His family have urged the 24-year old to give himself up.
“If my brother is listening to me, I want to tell him to surrender. If he did it, he will be punished. It doesn’t honour us as family and neighborhood.
“I speak in my name, and on behalf of my family and the whole neighbourhood. I am sure that my brother won’t do something like this. He left for economic reasons, for work, to help the family, he didn’t go for terrorism. Everybody knows us here. We don’t do this kind of thing.”