Drablia Belgacem

Drablia Belgacem was born on December 13, 1961, in Algeria. He probably arrived in Italy during the ‘90s and became a resident of Via Paravia n. 84 in Milan. In this city, Drablia frequently visited the mosque in “Viale Jenner”, where he became acquainted with its Imam, the Egyptian Abu Imad (Arman Ahmed El Hissiny Helmy), who was later arrested in 2010 for participating in a criminal association with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (SGPC), and al-Qaeda. Moreover, Drablia’s acquaintances prior to his incarceration included another prominent SGPC figure, Fezzani Moez Ben Abdelkader (known as Abu Nassim), with whom he reportedly shared domicile at 84 Via Paravia.
Drablia’s first detention in Italy occurred in 2010, when he was sentenced to six years of imprisonment on charges of criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen goods, and ideological falsehood. He began serving his sentence at Como Prison, where the first signs of aggressive behavior linked to religious motivations were observed. As a result, on February 11, 2011, the prison police issued a disciplinary report against him, holding him responsible for inciting a fight between Italian and Arab prisoners. Subsequent incidents at Como Prison included his refusal to speak with a female Department Commander during Ramadan, assaults on two cellmates for watching television shows deemed “inconsistent with the dogmas of Islamic belief,” and his expression of fundamentalist interpretations of the Quran. Additionally, Drablia refused to carry out prison labor, claiming the need to devote his time to prayer and the reading of religious texts. These behaviors were accompanied by a general refusal to undergo standard security checks. For these reasons, on November 24, 2013, Drablia was transferred to the Milan Opera Prison. After an initial period of apparent calm, he resumed violent behavior and rhetoric in February 2015. Consequently, on August 3, 2015, he was transferred to the Sassari-Bancali Prison. A few months after his arrival at the new facility, Drablia became a prominent figure and served as Imam among the Muslim inmates. During his last period of imprisonment, Drablia was repeatedly monitored by the prison police for engaging in behaviors aimed at indoctrination of a religious nature, incitement to religious hatred, and encouragement of violence against Westerners. Reports indicated that during his sermons, Drablia promoted and glorified martyrdom and jihad, urging allegiance to the ISIS terrorist organization and generally endorsing violence against infidels, Western democracies, and their citizens. His aim appeared to be instilling and reinforcing feelings of hatred among his audience. In particular, in his homilies Drablia frequently vilified collaboration with Western authorities, Jews, the Vatican, the United Nations, the media, Western customs and states, and various North African regimes. Furthermore, a series of notes discovered in his cell containing explicit references to violent intentions, along with testimonies from other detainees, provided substantial evidence supporting the charges of incitement to commit crimes aggravated by religious hatred.
In December 2017, while in jail, Drablia received another remand order from the Cagliari Prosecutor’s Office, as he was under investigation for incitement to commit a crime. Subsequently, in May 2018, Drablia was sentenced (by plea bargain) by the Court of Cagliari to a one-year prison term in connection with the crime of incitement to commit crimes aggravated by religious hatred. In February 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction.