Taha Boussetta

Taha Boussetta is a Tunisian national born on the 12th of September 1984 who was living in Fresagrandinaria, in the region of Abruzzo, when he was arrested in 2024. He was living there with his family and had moved there under a refugee-protection scheme one year prior to the arrest. He also had a stable job as a blue-collar worker.

Boussetta went through a process of online self-radicalisation which began or intensified around October 7, 2023, after Hamas’ “Al Aqsa Flood” attacks. He was very active online, where he systematically spread jihadist propaganda, including anti-western and antisemitic messaging, going as far as celebrating martyrdom, and overall conducting proselitisim for the Islamic State. The messages were relayed primarily to his Arabic-speaking social network, whose members were present in Italy and abroad, and were characterized by Salafi radical ideology.
The element that prompted Italian authorities to investigate was his friendship (on Facebook) with Abdessalam Lassoued, the terrorist who killed two Swedish nationals on the 16th of October 2023 in Brussels.
While his devices had already been confiscated and examined earlier, what prompted his arrest were indications he might have been preparing to flee the country.
When he was arrested, his wife publicly defended him, stating that they had a good life there. Boussetta’s represents another case of radicalisation happening without particular prior social isolation.

Boussetta was arrested in May 2024 by the Carabinieri’s ROS on charges of association for terrorism. Pre-emptive measures, prison in this instance, were upheld in two different moments, citing the level of violence of the contents he shared online. Nonetheless, in February 2025, charges for association for terrorism were dropped, while keeping charges for terrorist propaganda; as the statutory limits on his detention for that crime had expired, he was released. He was expelled soon after, in May 2025, on national security concerns.