Salafists Convicted in Gaza of Vittorio Arrigoni 's death

A Gaza military court has convicted four members of the Jihadist Salafi faction for the kidnapping and murdering of Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza last year. The Italian Activist was a member of the International Solidarity Movement. The Salafis share the radical ideology of al-Qaida and are rivals of the Hamas Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.

Mahmud al-Salfiti, 24, and Tamer al-Husasna, 26, were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Vittorio Arrigoni and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Khadr Faruk Jerim, 26, received a 10-year prison term for kidnapping. Amer Abu Ghola, 26, was jailed for a year for providing the house in which Arrigoni was found hanged.


From the J Post

The group had hoped to force Hamas to release a Salafist leader, Hisham al-Saidni. Hamas police said the kidnappers killed Arrigoni before a deadline they had set for Saidni's release had expired.

Arriogni's killing horrified international pro-Palestinian activists and tested Hamas's authority in the enclave, which it seized from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's allies in a brief civil war in 2007.

Saidni was recently freed without charge after pledging not to disturb public order, Hamas said.

There was no immediate reaction from Jihadist Salafi groups that have accused Hamas security forces of arresting nearly 40 of their men, some for firing rockets against Israel.

Three of the defendants were identified by the Hamas-run court as Hamas security men who had been working for the Salafi group for ideological reasons. Two received life sentences and one was jailed for 10 years. The men flashed defiant smiles as the sentences were handed down.

The fourth man, a fisherman, fled Gaza after the killing and was sentenced in absentia to 12 months. Two other men were killed in a gun battle with Hamas forces trying to rescue Arrigoni.

And the accusations fly

Hamas has arrested four suspects so far in the execution of ISM volunteer Vittorio (Vik) Arrigoni. But that doesn't stop the haters from trying to pin the blame on Israel.

The latest baffling accusation to hit the web is this;

Israeli HIT LIST Includes Vittorio Utopia Arrigoni from www.scribd.com

"Vittorio Arrigoni was on an Israeli hit list website called "Stop the ISM" The website called for his assasination. An archived page was created there are other targets to be killed. Be warned, 91177i... by 91177info in Law, Research, and Mossad"

A quick visit to the Stop the ISM website shows it is written in English, by an American journalist, Lee Kaplan. There is nothing on the site at all to indicate a connection to Israel. There is nothing in Kaplans' biographical data to indicate that he is now, nor has he ever been an Israeli citizen. Yet the rocket scientists at scribd say he's "Israeli".

Methinks they mean Jew.

ISM Volunteer kidnapped in Gaza

Oh, the poor hapless International Solidarity Movement. Just in the middle of their recruitement drive for volunteers, this had to happen. Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, ISM volunteer in Gaza, was kidnapped earlier today in Gaza city. And they can't even blame Israel this time. The kidnappers belong to
A-Tawheed wal Jihad, an organization aligned with al Qaeda that feels Hamas is too moderate. They have released a video showing Arrigoni bruised, tied and blindfolded, and text scrolling across the screen threatens that he will die unless Hamas releases Salafist prisoners by 5 p.m. Friday. Topping the list of prisoners is a senior member of the group, Hisham al-Sa'adi.

Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, admitted Arrigoni was one of their activists who had arrived on a flotilla several years earlier. Arrigoni writes a blog for Guerrilla Radio and for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto. He is the first foreigner kidnapped in Gaza since BBC journalist Alan Johnston was snatched in 2007.

UPDATE:
From JPOST
Security officials found the body of an Italian man who had been abducted in the Gaza Strip in an abandoned house overnight Thursday, a Hamas security official said.

Two men were arrested and others were being sought.

A video released of Arrigoni said, in Arabic "the Italian hostage entered our land only to spread corruption" and it described Italy as "the infidel state".

This is really going to cut down on ISM's recruiting.