5 members of Kurdistan Workers' Party arrested in Italy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Five members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) outlawed organization were arrested on Tuesday, March 27, on suspicion of extorting money from Kurdish immigrants to support the group, Italian police have said.

The investigation was sparked by the beating of a Turkish citizen who has a kebab business near Venice.

The five, all Turkish citizens of Kurdish ethnicity, are under investigation for conspiring with the intent of extortion and causing serious injury, with the aggravating circumstance of terrorism aims, a police statement said.

Authorities also ordered the search of eight residences in Tuesday's action.

In Ankara, Italian Embassy confirmed the arrest warrants and said Venice Police Department issued on Tuesday morning arrest warrants for five suspects and eight residences in close cooperation with Rome, Modena, Padova, Udine and Pesaro Police Departments.

A statement released by the embassy on Tuesday said the investigation, conducted in coordination with Venice Prosecutors’ Office, could shortly shed light on political reflection of the incident of beating and revealed a broad range of activities related to extortion.

The statement underlined that Venice police’s Tuesday’s storming was “a first fatal blow to the PKK’s mechanism of collecting money.” It said “the arrests showed that money collected by extortion from foreigners of Kurdish descent is indispensable source of finance for terrorist activities in Turkish-Iraq border,” Today’s Zaman reported.