Italy

Italian police arrest man suspected of helping 2016 Nice attacker

cde.news desk 22 April 2021, 12:40 · 1 min read

I05 - 20010814 - VOGHERA, ITALY : Policemen sit in a police car as they escort American Susanna Thomas out of Voghera's prison, late Tuesday 14 August 2001, leaving for Linate's Airport, near Milano. A court in Genoa ordered the release of 21-year-old Thomas, held on vandalism charge during violent protest at last month's G8 summit in Genoa. EPA PHOTO ANSA/LUCA ZENNARO/KLD-hh

Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested an Albanian man suspected of supplying weapons to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who killed 86 people in July 2016 by driving a truck through a seafront crowd in the French city of Nice.

Police said Endri Elezi, 28, was seized in the late hours of Wednesday in Sparanise, a town close to Caserta, in southern Italy. France had issued a European arrest warrant for him.

Bouhlel, a Tunisian citizen, was shot dead by police after he carried out the attack at the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016, France’s national Bastille day holiday.

“The arrest of Endri Elezi … confirms the great skills of the state police’s counter-terrorism investigators and the effectiveness of the international cooperation,” Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said in a statement.

Photo: EPA PHOTO ANSA/LUCA ZENNARO/KLD-hh