Italy deported two foreign nationals suspected of attacking Milan Chabad emissary Rabbi Tzemach Mizrahi, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced on Monday.
Piantedosi said the two men had been returned to their countries of origin. The minister said, “There is no place in our country for hatred and violence, and no antisemitic act will be tolerated.”
The attack took place on September 16 at a bus stop in Piazzale Bande Nere in western Milan, near an area with a large Jewish population.
The three men surrounded 51-year-old Mizrahi, rabbi of the city’s central Chabad synagogue on Via Soderini, as he waited for a bus. They shouted at him in Arabic, grabbed his hat, put it on, and mocked him.
When Mizrahi began filming them on his phone, one of the men kicked him from behind and pushed him off the sidewalk into the road. The three then left the scene.
Mizrahi: Nobody at bus stop intervened in antisemitic attack
Mizrahi said about 20 people were waiting at the bus stop at the time, but none intervened.
According to Milan’s Jewish community, footage recorded by Mizrahi helped authorities locate the three suspects shortly afterward.
One of those deported was a Moroccan national whose name was not released. The other was 21-year-old Tunisian national Battar Zahani, who was deported to Tunisia.
The third suspect, Zahani’s 20-year-old brother, Ilyes Zahani, remains in Italy under restrictive conditions while awaiting trial.
Walker Meghnagi, head of Milan’s Jewish community, welcomed the deportations, calling the move “wonderful news.”
In an interview after the attack, Mizrahi said he would not stop wearing his rabbinic clothing or conceal his Jewish identity, but added that he would not allow his children to walk the streets alone.
