Nosair Gharib Hassan Nosair Mohamed

Nosair Gharib Hassan Nosair Mohamed was born in Egypt on the 10th of April 1974 and was residing in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) when he was arrested on the charges of inciting violence and participating in a foreign terrorist organisation on the 17th of October 2023.

Nosair while not having Italian citizenship was regularly employed in a cleaning business. His arrest was executed in the context of a large investigation on jihadist propaganda online. Similarly to his friend Rafaei Alaa, Nosair was found to be interacting with individuals linked to IS, and spreading radical jihadist propaganda on different platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram. He had reportedly been engaging in this behaviour since at least February 2020.

The material he would post, interact with, or download, varied in content, ranging from nasheeds celebrating martyrdom and jihad to videos of executions, or speeches by radical religious leaders. When his phone was analysed it emerged that he shared a lot of this material also with Rafaei Alaa, who seems to have been “guided” in his radicalisation process by Nosair who, on the other hand, seemed more “cognizant”.

In the WhatsApp groups in which Nosair participated were present numerous other people (numbering in the low hundreds) most of whom had phone numbers relating to Middle Eastern and North African region where ISIS is present. Additionally, the content coming from the Telegram and WhatsApp groups bore the marks of official Islamic State news outlets, such as Al-Bayan Radio, Al Hayat Media Center, and Al Furqan Radio.

Aside from the collection and spread of jihadist propaganda, Nosair has also made money transfers, for a total of 1035,91€, to individuals not traceable to his family or friend circles, but living in Yemen or Palestine. This money was likely directed at women facing hardships in their home countries, but as in the case of Rafaei, it is suspected that these women were related to ISIS, which is incidentally active in those regions.

In one conversation with his friends, secretly recorded by the authorities, Nosair also talked positively about the experience of firing a weapon.

During his defence, Nosair stated that his support for ISIS was only limited to their opposition to Assad’s regime, and to their efforts to vindicate the impoverished masses of Iraq and Syria. He also noted that his donations were made as a form of charity and that he was unaware of any affiliation to ISIS on behalf of these women.

He has been denied house arrests and is currently awaiting trial.