Italy seeks 10, including Imam, on terror finance charges

Italy has issued arrest warrants for 10 people, including an imam, suspected of financing terrorism, prosecutors said Saturday.

Eight of the suspects are of Tunisian origin and two are Italian. The Imam is from the city of Teramo in the central region of Abruzzo.  

The suspects are alleged to have "created many false accounts, through various companies to set aside large sums of money," the prosecutor’s office in Aquila said.

The money was used to finance activities related to the radical Al-Nusra organisation, the former Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, it said.

Part of the money was also intended for imams in Italy,  "including one convicted for association with a group linked to international terrorism".

An Italian accountant is also among the 10 suspects, whose property, money and real estate, said to be worth more than one million euros (over $1.1 million), were seized, the statement said.