Valeria Collina, 68, the mother of
one of the three London Bridge attackers, 22-year-old
Moroccan-Italian national Youssef Zaghba, has said her son met
the "wrong people" in Barking in East London.
Collina, who lives in the small town of Fagnano di
Valsamoggia near Bologna, said Wednesday she had realised "from
a glance" that her son had been radicalised.
She told investigators she didn't know much about her son's
life in Britain although she thought he had a regular job.
"We had always checked his friends to make sure he didn't
trust the wrong people", she told Espresso magazine in an
exclusive interview.
However, she added that Barking "never gave me a sense of
serenity" and her son, who died in the June 3 terror attack, met
the "wrong people there".
"He never let anyone influence him before, neither in Italy
nor in Morocco, where he studied computer science at the
University of Fez", she said, noting however that "he had
internet and you get everything there".
Collina converted to Islam when she married Youssef's father,
a Moroccan national.
The parents, who are separated, also have a daughter,
Khaoutar, who lives in Bologna.
Collina moved back to Italy two years ago while her former
husband still lives in Fes, where Zaghba was born and grew up.
She said her son called her two days before the attack and
that "I now realize he had planned it to say goodbye".
"Although he didn't tell me anything specific, I could feel
it in his voice", she told the magazine.
Collina said didn't answer the phone the following day and
that she had been unable to contact him through a friend who
also lives in London.
The mother cooperated with investigators after her son was
detained by police in March 2016 as he was trying to board a
flight to Istanbul at Bologna airport.
Police stopped and detained him because he had a one-wat
ticket and was only carrying a backpack, suspecting he intended
to reach Syria via Turkey to join ISIS.
He was investigated but not charged and later moved to
London.
Zaghba's details were however uploaded to a Europe-wide
database of potential criminals after he was stopped in Bologna.
"In the past, even before he tried to take that flight, he
showed me a few videos on Syria", his mother said.
"But he never spoke about going there to fight - Syria
represented for him a place where it was possible to live
according to a pure Islam".
Although she is a practicing Muslim, Collina told the
publication that she agreed with the imams who refused to
celebrate her son's funeral.
"It is necessary to give a strong political signal, a message
to the families of victims and to non-Muslims".
The mother's aunt Franca Lambertini, who is also her
neighbor, said Youssef had visited his mother twice over the
past year and a half.
"I always saw him as a good boy but he spoke little", said
Lambertini.
Valsamoggia Mayor Daniele Ruscigno said the only family
member to permanently reside in the town was Collina after she
had spent "a long time abroad".
According to diplomatic sources, Youssef Zaghba was on the
roll of Italians residing abroad in Casablanca, Morocco, until
March 2016.
He was then reported as a resident in Fagnano, Bologna, but
was not registered in London, according to the sources.
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