Monsef El Mkhayar

Monsef El Mkhayar was born on January 1, 1995, in Sidi Othmane, Casablanca, Morocco. He grew up with his maternal aunt until 1998, when she emigrated to Italy, leaving him with her husband, an army officer. This period was marked by neglect and associations with older individuals.
In the summer of 2009, determined to leave Morocco, Monsef learned Italian and clandestinely boarded a truck headed to Piedmont, Italy, where his aunt lived. However, upon arrival, he discovered that his aunt could not host him. Refusing to contact his mother, he began living without a fixed residence.
Later in 2009 Monsef was placed in care of his mother. Their relationship was troubled, marked by frequent conflicts, primarily due to his financial demands and some aggressive behaviour. Their bond deteriorated further in February 2010, when his mother filed a police report against him, and he expressed his desire not to live with her due to the lack of care and attention he had received.
On March 2, 2010, Monsef was entrusted to the Municipality of Milan and placed in various care facilities. However, he was repeatedly removed from these communities due to non-compliance with educational programs, poor self-control, and conflicts with peers, which often escalated into physical altercations.
From June 2010 to February 2012, he was placed at the Kayros facility in Vimodrone, founded by Don Claudio Burgio, the chaplain of the Beccaria juvenile detention centre. He was later removed but returned on October 27, 2012, to complete his psychological and educational program. This time, his placement was conditioned on participation in an integrated multidisciplinary service, including medical evaluations and counselling.
According to the head of the Kayros association, Monsef and another young man, Tarik, moved frequently between different facilities in Vimodrone, Sagrate, and Milan. Monsef also made several trips to visit his aunt in Piedmont and lived in multiple communities, leading to an unsettled and unstable life.
Due to his constant movement and aggressive, violent, and borderline criminal behaviour, he was unable to follow a positive rehabilitation path. He accumulated criminal charges, including drug dealing and assaulting a community worker. He was held at San Vittore prison between October 2013 and March 2014 for drug-related offenses, although official records indicate the detention lasted only a few days.
Upon returning to the community, Monsef exhibited a sudden behavioural change. He began attending the mosque regularly, praying multiple times a day, and showed a newfound, intense religious fervour that had been previously absent. His conversations became increasingly cantered around Islam, often insisting that everyone should convert.
The community staff linked this radicalization to his prison experience. Despite previously being close to his social worker, after prison he refused to shake her hand, claiming that devout Muslims should not touch women. He began expressing strict orthodox Islamic views with his peers, who found his insistence and radicalized discourse overwhelming. Even other Muslims who did not practice as strictly were annoyed by his behaviour. Monsef had heated arguments with a fellow community member and frequent discussions with others over their perceived lack of adherence to the Quran.
Monsef was known to be a difficult person to engage with. The only person who remained patient with him was Tarik, who was known for his meekness and tendency to stay in the background. In January 2015, Monsef and Tarik disappeared together. They took all their clothing and left, heading for Turkey. On his Facebook profile Muslim Monsef, Monsef posted a photo of the two of them on a bus with the caption, “We are on the road of Allah.”
Abdel G. K., another resident of the community, had previously received threats and intimidation from Monsef and Tarik, both before and after their departure, through Facebook Messenger. In December 2015, from Tarik’s number, Karim received a message saying, “When I get there, I’ll cut off your head… have you seen Francia?” Monsef had also invited Karim to fight for the Islamic State, but Karim refused.
Karim later admitted that Monsef prayed frequently, was quite extremist, and had even tried to convert the president of the association. After his time in prison, he became more religious than before; he prayed regularly and no longer used substances.
On January 17, 2015, border police identified Monsef and Tarik boarding Pegasus flight from Orio al Serio to Istanbul. They told police they had no relatives in Turkey, only some Arab friends. Their vague explanations led the authorities to notify the police headquarters, and shortly after, a report was found confirming their disappearance, filed by the head of the community where they lived. Although a return ticket for February 4, 2015, had been booked, the two never boarded the return flight.
Their phones remained switched off for about three months and were reactivated in April 2015, likely after completing a training period. On April 11, 2015, Monsef published a photo on his Muslim Monsef Facebook profile showing himself in a black outfit next to an unidentified armed individual, suggesting he had completed training and was now available for combat. That same day, two more photos appeared: one of an identity card issued by the Islamic State and another of Monsef holding a machine gun while dressed in black.
In addition to this Facebook profile, he used several others: Zakaria.buno (active from August 2015), Zakaria.buno.1 (used until March 2016 before being renamed Zakkaria.buno), and later Zakaria Monsef and Monsef Buno in May 2016. On these profiles, he engaged in discussions with other Muslims, accusing them of being unorthodox. He praised the mujahideen, promoted jihad, the implementation of Sharia law, and even the conquest of Rome. One photo depicted his companion Tarik, accompanied by phrases celebrating his martyrdom, indicating that Tarik had died fighting for the cause of the Islamic State in combat zones.
Monsef also maintained online contact with the imam of Lecco, Osama El Santawy, who eventually cut off communication due to the disturbing images and extremist content Monsef posted. In their exchanges, Monsef insisted that it was a duty for believers to make hijra to Daesh, responding in Arabic and demonstrating his knowledge of the language. At one point, the imam sarcastically asked him, “Teach me how to be a good Muslim,” to which Monsef responded with insults, calling him soft, an imbecile, and a weakling. He criticized the imam for “living like a kuffar, a slave without realizing it,” claiming that true Muslims did not live as the imam did and that friendship with non-believers (kuffar) was haram. The imam eventually reported Monsef’s Facebook account to the police.
Monsef’s mother, Fatima, reported that she learned first from her sister and later directly from Monsef that he was in Syria. Contact with him was sporadic and mostly occurred in April 2016. During these conversations, he told her that he had married and had a child in Syria. He wrote messages saying, “I’m never coming back,” and “I will not return,” explaining that his decision was not only to stay with his wife and child but also to continue fighting for jihad.
When his mother asked if he had gone there for marriage, he replied that he was not in Syria “for fun” and had planned to remain there long before marrying because “my place is there” and “I was created for Allah.” He explicitly told his mother that in Syria, fighters would go out to fight for a week and then return home to their wives. He also asked his mother to send him money as soon as possible.
In his messages to his aunt Malika, Monsef wrote, “Peace, Mama Malika. Everything is good, how are you? I am now in Turkey, thanks to God, and the brothers welcomed us like kings.” Later, he wrote, “I’m in Syria, I’m fine, everything is here. If you want to come, we have a good life here.” He insisted that “all the boys who came to Syria didn’t just show up by chance; their minds were cleansed first.”
Malika received several invitations to join him in Syria, which she always refused, urging him instead to return. He explained that during times when he was unreachable, he was “training,” “doing things like the military,” and “preparing for combat.” He admitted he went to Syria specifically to fight and was unafraid of death, believing he was fighting for a just cause. When asked about Tarik, Monsef confirmed that he had died and gone to paradise. His Facebook profile showed images of him pointing a finger toward the sky with a white flag in the background—an image commonly associated with martyrdom.
However, in the most recent period, Monsef showed signs of regret. He confided to his aunt, “Now I understand, I want to come back, I want to return to Italy. Here, I only see blood. I see heads… they take people’s heads off. No, no, I want to go to Italy, I want to return.” He admitted he could no longer endure the brutality and scenes of beheadings. “Aunt, I want to come back. They brainwashed me. I want to return to Italy. I want to leave this place,” he pleaded.
Malika reportedly sent him and his family about €4,000, possibly to help him plan his return. In total, the family is believed to have sent around €7,000 during his time in Syria.
El Yaqouti Tariq, a former resident of the Vimodrone community and companion of the two young men who left for Syria, was aware of their plans to depart for jihad. After their departure, he remained in contact with them, discussing jihad, paradise for fighters, and the will of Allah, affirming that “jihad is a command from Allah.”
On April 13, 2017, the Milan Court of Assizes sentenced Monsef in absentia to eight years in prison and ordered his expulsion from Italy after serving the sentence. However, he resurfaced publicly only on March 9, 2019, in a Reuters interview after being captured by Kurdish militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces. In the interview, he expressed disappointment with life under the Caliphate, describing its leaders as behaving like a mafia, though he remained ideologically attached to his beliefs, stating, “This is my faith, and I will not change it.”
Due to uncertainty about whether Monsef was ever informed of his trial, the Milan Court of Appeal annulled his conviction on January 10, 2024. The court, citing the 2022 Cartabia Reform, emphasized that a trial in absentia is only valid if it is proven the defendant knew of the proceedings or deliberately evaded them.
In Monsef’s case, there was no evidence of proper notification or intentional avoidance. On the contrary, his ongoing detention in an unspecified prison camp in Syria represented an absolute and involuntary impediment to his participation. As a result, the court upheld the defense’s objection, ruling that the trial could not proceed due to the defendant’s lack of knowledge of the process.