Marianna Sergio

Marianna Sergio was born in Torre del Greco (NA) on May 10, 1984, although her family had moved to Inzago (MI). In 2015, she was charged with art. 270 bis of the Italian Criminal Code for criminal association with the purpose of terrorism, having decided to enlist within ISIS after traveling to Syria to follow in her sister Maria Giulia’s footsteps and having conducted proselytism with the aim of recruiting towards her family and other women.
Marianna was living in Inzago with her parents, Assunta Buonfiglio, Sergio Sergio and her sister Maria Giulia Sergio, who were all Islam converts. The Sergios were a low income family, as only the dad Sergio was working, Assunta was a housewife and Marianna and Maria Giulia were primarily students who occasionally worked. From court documents it is revealed that Marianna had been previously married to an Algerian man named Abdelwahid Abdulwahid Budi, although he was living in France for work.
Within the Sergio family, Marianna was the first to convert to Islam and at the time of police investigation, her radical beliefs were already rooted into her consciousness, as court documents attest that Marianna reiterated more than once the full legitimacy and necessity of the Islamic State’s acts towards westerners, minorities and hostages. Moreover, Marianna and her sister Maria Giulia were following Bushra Haik’s Skype study group “Aqidah and Tafsir”, which contributed to their radicalisation and to their decision to join the Caliphate.
Bushra Haik played an important role in Marianna’s life after Maria Giulia left. In January 2015, Haik was giving Marianna advice on how to elude police questioning by giving her precise instructions such as deleting all evidence from her computer, playing down the seriousness of her sister’s journey and lying about her trip to Syria. Moreover, without Maria Giulia, Marianna became involved in the Haik’s recruitment process, being the intermediary between new recruits and the preacher. By doing so, she managed to recruit and indoctrinate other women such as Lupan Yevdokiya “Dunia”, Cristina Ranuccio and Lubjana Gjecaj, as attested by various wiretapped conversations, by recalling Haik’s teachings.
Maria Giulia married Aldo Kobuzi in September 2014 and they left for Syria straight away. Once there, she started engaging in proselytism towards her family, trying to convince them to follow her to the Islamic State. Her attempts were successful: in February 2015, Marianna asked for a divorce although the period of iddah kept her from joining her sister right away. Still, in March 2015, Marianna started placing some ads online to sell furniture, evidencing that the family had decided to leave for Syria. Marianna also indicated May 10 as a possible leaving day, as her iddah would end and her dad Sergio could collect his pension money and resign from work. However, when Sergio had a change of heart about their decision, Marianna intervened trying to persuade him by using the teachings learned in Haik’s lessons.
Finally, in April 2015, driven by the insistence of Marianna and Maria Giulia, the Sergios decided to leave for the Caliphate, withdrawing Sergio’s pension money, buying suitcases and applying for a passport. From April onwards, the Sergios and Maria Giulia would talk about their imminent trip with caution and in code: they were aware they could have been intercepted by the police. In the end, Marianna’s parents were arrested hours before they were due to leave for Syria.
Marianna Sergio was arrested on June 1, 2015, and detained in Rebibbia (RO). She was sent to trial that same year and she asked for a shortened proceeding. In February 2016, she was found guilty and sentenced for participation to a terrorist organisation to five years and four months. In 2018, the Court of Cassation of Rome confirmed the conviction.