MILAN: Investigators on Saturday worked to determine if the Berlin Christmas market attacker got any logistical support to cross at least two European borders and evade capture for days before being killed in a police shootout in a Milan suburb.
Tunisian fugitive Anis Amri’s fingerprints and wallet were found in a truck that plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. Despite an intense, Europe-wide manhunt, Amri fled across Germany, into France and then into Italy, traveling at least part of the way by train, before being shot early Friday in a routine police stop outside a deserted train station.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Berlin attack, but so far little is known about any support network backing up the 24-year-old fugitive.
Italian investigators were working to see if the Tunisian had any connections in the Milan area. Italy was his port of entry into Europe in 2011, and he spent more than three years in Italian jails on Sicily. But an anti-terrorism official said there was no evidence that he had ever been in or around Milan before Friday’s shootout.
In Tunisia, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest Friday of Amri’s nephew and two others suspected of belonging to the same extremist network.
The ministry said in a statement that Amri, through an alias, had sent his 18-year-old nephew Fedi some money through the post office to join him in Europe and join the Abou Walaa network. Amri claimed to be the network’s emir.
The ministry said the nephew told them he was in contact with Amri via encrypted communications on Telegram, a messaging app, to avoid detection. He said Amri had recruited him to jihad and asked him to pledge allegiance to IS, which he did and sent it to Amri via Telegram.
The Tunisian prosecutor’s office ordered all three held in pretrial detention pending further investigation.
In Spain, police were investigating whether Amri was in contact with a possible extremist there, on a tip from German authorities.
“We are studying all possible connections [between Amri] and our country, above all with one specific person,” Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido told Spanish radio.
Italy has found itself at the center of the Berlin attack investigation after the dramatic shootout early Friday that ended the manhunt.
Investigators are looking into why Amri returned to Italy this week as he tried to elude police and whether he had jihadi contacts in the country.
Authorities were also investigating the apparent coincidence that the truck from a Polish shipping company used in the Berlin attack had been loaded with machinery in the neighboring Milan suburb of Cinisello Balsamo three days before the attack.
Milan police Chief Antonio de Iesu acknowledged the connection was “suggestive,” but told reporters there was no evidence yet of a link.
On Saturday, the husband of a 34-year-old Czech woman killed in the Berlin attack said he was relieved that Amri no longer posed a threat to the people of Europe.
Petr Cizmar said he was not after revenge “but I needed to know that he was removed from our society one way or another and could not cause further harm.”