Police in Italy tailed my son everywhere.. in UK no one watched him
Terrorist’s mum shocked that he slipped through net
THE mum of London Bridge killer Youssef Zaghba says she cannot believe British police did not keep tabs on him, despite being tipped off about his extremist views.
Speaking at her home just outside Bologna, Valeria Khadija Collina revealed Italian authorities had her son under constant surveillance.
Valeria, 68, told the Mirror: “The Italian police were following him around everywhere, but in Britain, nothing – I cannot understand why.
“I believe they failed to monitor him like they should have done.
“When he came to Italy to visit, the Italian police would be waiting at the steps of the plane.
“They would have a chat with him and even bring him back to the house to see what he was up too.
“Youssef never mentioned anything like that in England and it’s obviously up to them what they do, but I never heard anything about the English monitoring him.”
It also emerged yesterday that Zaghba was quizzed by British police as recently as January after he returned from a visit to see his mum.
Italian security sources confirmed officials at Stansted Airport, Essex, checked his name against a European criminal database when he landed.
The search would have revealed he was detained at Bologna Airport 10 months earlier – when he tried to head to Syria and told officials he “wanted to be a terrorist”.
Meanwhile, Giuseppe Amato, head prosecutor in Bologna, confirmed British intelligence was warned about Zaghba last year. Describing the arrest, he said: “He initially said he was a terrorist and then changed his mind and said he was a tourist. On his phone were the usual images used to evoke sympathies in this religious phenomenon, beheadings and so on.
“It was all open source material. There weren’t pictures showing him as the protagonist in any violence.
“There wasn’t evidence to charge him with any crime. But we decided he was a person who was worth monitoring and merited scrutiny.”
Zaghba’s mother blamed her son’s radicalisation on hate-filled Islamist videos posted on the internet.
She said he went from being a wellbehaved teen to moody young man obsessed with joining Islamic State.
Valeria continued: “I blame the internet for his radicalisation.
“He wanted to go to Syria because he thought it was a place where you could live a pure form of Islam and he wanted to go there to raise a family and to work.”
Yesterday family and friends in
He wanted to move to Syria because he thought you could live a pure form of Islam there VALERIA KHADIJA COLLINA ON KILLER SON’S RADICALISATION
Bologna painted a picture of a fractured family life in which Zaghba and sister Kawtur, 25, were controlled by their strict Muslim father Mohammed, 55.
The parents met when mum Valeria – a white Muslim convert – went on holiday to Morocco in 1991. Zaghba was born and raised there. But Valeria moved back to Italy in 2015 because she could not tolerate her husband’s increasingly strict interpretation of Islam.
Shortly after, Zaghba made his first visit to London. There he fell in with murderous accomplices Khuram Butt, 27, and Rachid Redouane, 30.
Reports in Italy claimed he befriended Butt while working at a KFC restaurant in East Ham, East London.
Last night the chain said it could find no record of him as an employee.
But it has emerged Zaghba did take a contractor job at the Islamic Eman Channel TV station in nearby Barking just six weeks ago. Eman spokesman Ohi Ahmed said: “Prior to starting six weeks ago, no concerns regarding criminality were raised.
“At no point was he involved in content production at the channel.
“As soon as his name was circulated by the media, as a suspect, in the terrible attacks witnessed in London, we immediately contacted the police.
“We are now fully cooperating with all inquiries. At no time, during his work at the channel, did he express extremist thoughts or display any sympathy towards extremist organisations abroad.”
A string of controversial clerics have appeared on the station, including Abdul Rahman Green, Mufti Menk and Haitham a-Haddad.
Haras Rafiq, of the counterextremism Quilliam Foundation thinktank said: “This is a hardline Salafi TV channel that hosts preachers who can be described as non-violent extremists.”
Meanwhile, Zaghba’s mother Valeria described her last phone conversation with her son on Thursday last week.
She said: “He seemed really happy and was telling me how he had moved into a new room in a new house.
“He was telling me how he was happy because it had a beautiful view of the garden and the trees.
“I now realise he was describing paradise to me and it was his way of making a last tender goodbye.”
But she said she was “disgusted” by her son’s actions and agreed with London Imams who refused to bury him. She added: “I would not want to bury him either because it sends the wrong signal to others who believe what he was doing was right.”