Rome - Romania on Tuesday handed over to Italy an Algerian man suspected of belonging to a mostly North African Islamist cell allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in Italy and other European countries, officials said. The man, Kamel Abbachi, 36, was handed over to Italian police at Bucharest's Henri Coanda international airport, an Italian police spokeswoman told Deutsche Press-Agentur dpa.
A court in Milan on October 30 issued an international arrest warrant for Abbachi who was picked up by Romanian authorities near the eastern Romanian city of Galati on November 28, the ANSA news agency reported.
Abbachi together with several nationals from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco allegedly operated a cell aimed at recruiting militants to carry out terrorist attacks, helping them to obtain false documents to enter Europe, ANSA said.
Investigators have in the past identified an Islamic centre based in Milan acting as an international clearing-house for Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda.
