Fascists attack Muslim on live television
01 January 2003
Adel Smith, head of the Unione musulmani d'Italia (the Italian Muslim Union), and his secretary Massimo Zucchi, were attacked by a gang on 11 January 2003 in Verona during a debate on local television station Telenuovo. The programme´s host Mario Zwirner has also come under scrutiny for telling the attackers to leave "before the police arrives". Six militants from Forza Nuova were arrested at the time of the raid, and were later placed under house arrest on 14 January for violence against individuals with the aggravating circumstance of instigating racial hatred. Three days later, after a number of FN offices were raided, a further 15 were also placed under house arrest, including the organisation´s regional secretary in Veneto, Paolo Caratossidis. The charges they are facing include causing bodily harm, insults, violence against individuals and participation in the crime, with a further aggravating circumstance (apart from inciting racial hatred) resulting from the large number of attackers.
In a hearing in the Italian parliament, (see Statewatch News online January 2003) Interior Minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, referred to FN and the attack on Adel Smith when he spoke of a "widespread political illegality that can no longer be tolerated". He then gave examples covering a wide range of political activities, including picketing and entry into a detention centre that was under construction in Bologna suggesting they were associated with terrorism. The opportunistic use of the attack was further compounded by the wording used by Pisanu, who spoke of an "attack on the provocateur Adel Smith" to imply that Smith was responsible for the attack because of the views he expressed.
FN is a neo-fascist organisation set up by Roberto Fiore, and now-deceased Massimo Morsello, on their return from London - where they were on the run from Italian justice that sought them for involvement in right-wing terrorist attacks. It ran as a political party in the last Italian national elections on an anti-immigration and anti-abortion ticket.
Links between FN and two parties (the Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale) that are part of the Berlusconi government are apparent. On 15 January, under a week after the attack, FN held a press conference in Verona town council, with backing from LN councillor Flavio Tosi, who recently spoke in favour of segregated buses, and is under investigation by the Verona prosecutors office for collecting signatures to rid "the city of gypsies". LN MEP Mario Borghezio has spoken at FN rallies, notably in December 2002 in Rome, where he attacked "the global attempt to corrupt and bastardise our blood". Borgezio is well-known for racist initiatives such as disinfecting trains used by immigrants, calling for the establishment of a database of Muslims in Italy and for a boycott of Benetton after the clothes manufacturer allowed Muslims to use the sports hall in Treviso, which it owns, to be used for Ramadan celebrations.
Il manifesto 14.1.03, 15.1.03, 16.1.03, 18.1.03.