Libyan warlord Italy released arrested in Tripoli, Italy summons Russian ambassador over tower accident comments and Nord Stream2 suspect starts hunger strike in jail

Europe and Europeans generally are not accustomed to the world looking elsewhere, to not inserting themselves in the narrative, to not being the center of their world. The term "Eurocentric" exists for a reason.

In Switzerland this week, Defense Minister Martin Pfister was shouted down before he could get much of a word in at the University of Geneva by vocal anti-Israel protesters for thirty minutes. Nevermind the rhetoric about "colonial" Israel is occurring in a country that is and remains the beneficiary of paracolonialism. Nevermind that there were Jewish people across the Levant and North Africa for centuries before there was even an Israel. Really nevermind the vocal anti-Israel crowd in Europe stirs the pot enough to reeducate even the most passive observer of the Middle East conflict as to why there is even an Israel (hint: ancient hatreds are very much alive in our time). Truly nevermind "anticolonial" voices claim to speak for and on behalf of natives. Absolutely nevermind Europeans' sense of moral superiority was at the root of actual colonialism. 

In Geneva this Wednesday, these were not college students – who can be forgiven for the heady emotions of youth, a lack of real world experience, the manipulations of social media. No, these were full-grown individuals shouting into the void, trying only the limits of their own vocal chords and the patience of actual adults in the room. After about thirty minutes, the police showed up. One officer was quoted by the Tribunal du Genève, "It would be a shame if we had to use force." And that was enough, it was time for the crew of shouty folks to disassemble and file out. Vive la resistance?

As if that little bit of theater was not embarrassingly cringe enough, Swiss titans of industry went to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump to grovel about the 39% tariffs the US imposed on the country, Swissinfo reports. The heads of Richemont and Rolex, shipping giant MSC, commodities trader Mercuria, gold refiner MKS PAMP and investment firm Partners Group sat splayed in front of the resolute desk, which was festooned for the occasion with a mock up of the unrealized "Arc de Trump," like school boys who had to explain that their feelings were hurt. The result of the meeting appears to be not much. Swiss Finance Minister, who currently holds the rotating presidency, Karin Keller-Sutter said ultimately the tariff situation depends on the US President, Reuters reports.

This was all big news in Switzerland but nowhere else, and certainly not in Washington between all the drama happening domestically there. If a country does not want to be part of the bigger clubs of NATO and the EU, seeing itself as too independent, insists too much on relevance, the reality will rear its head: Switzerland is relevant only for the Swiss. Maybe that 39% is how the US will eek out a contribution to European security regardless?

The Alpine Security Monitor tracks the most significant (read: relevant) geopolitical events and security news in the greater Alpine region so Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland (ok, little Liechtenstein and Monaco too when merited). You can subscribe (and become a paid subscriber!) and if this was forwarded to you, welcome! Questions, comments, complaints and adulations can be sent to amanda.rivkin@securitydialogue.org.

TRIPOLI, LIBYA – Libyan warlord released by Italy arrested in Tripoli on torture charges

• Politico reports Libyan warlord Osama al-Masri Njeem who Italian authorities released from custody in January was arrested Wednesday in the Libyan capital Tripoli "on charges of torture and violence against prisoners."
• Investigations carried out by Libyan authorities point to al-Masri's involvement in the "violation of rights of inmates at the main Tripoli Reform and Rehabilitation Institution," including the torture of 10 inmates and the death of one individual from torture. On January 19, Italian authorities arrested al-Masri following a Juventus match in Turin on the basis of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) which accused hin of "war crimes, torture, murder and sexual violence."
• Despite the seriousness of the charges, al-Masri was ordered released in 48 hours which "sparked outrage" in Rome and prompted the Court of Ministers to initiate investigations into Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano "over allegations they facilitated Al-Masri's return to Libya." In early October, the lower house of the Italian parliament dismissed the inquiry. Critics of al-Masri's release charge Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government did so "to protect Italian energy interests and prevent political retaliation"; the government countered it had done so "as a matter of legal procedure and national security."

ROME, ITALY – Worker dies in medieval tower collapse; anger at Moscow over comments

• The BBC reports a worker of Romanian nationality, Octav Stroici, 66, was pulled from the rubble of the partial collapse of the medieval Torre dei Conti in the Italian capital Monday twelve hours after a section collapsed and died of cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hosital.
• Three workers were pulled from the rubble in total, two of whom were Romanian nationals, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said. Stroici had been conscious and spoke with emergency workers throughout the day. His wife was also present during the rescue.
• On Tuesday, Reuters reports the Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to protest comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova which "linked the collapse of a tower in Rome to Italy's military support for Ukraine." Zakharova had written on her Telegram channel that Italy "wastes its taxpayers money" on military aid for Ukraine while the local economy and its towers fall into disarray.

BOLOGNA, ITALY – Nord Stream2 sabotage suspect begins hunger strike in Italian jail

• Deutsche Welle reports Tuesday that a man identified only as Serhii K. according to strict German privacy laws who was arrested while on holiday last August in Rimini, Italy and is accused of participating in the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea has begun a hunger strike to protest prison conditions.
• The 49-year-old suspect has been in detention in a maximum-security facility since August. His attorney Nicolas Canestrini said Serhii K.'s hunger strike began on October 30.
• An appeals court in Bologna has approved Serhii K.'s extradition to Germany but Canestrini said he plans to appeal the case to the Italian Supreme Court. Previously, the court halted the extradition of the lower court's ruling. A Polish court threw out the extradition request of another alleged suspect in the case last month.

BERLIN, GERMANY – Trump advisor visits Berlin to speak to AfD MPs and supporters

• Politico reports Alex Bruesewitz spoke Wednesday to "a room packed with AfD parliamentarians and supporters in Berlin" where he declared the far-right MAGA movement shares a common cause with the German far-right, calling this struggle "a spiritual war for the soul of our nations."
• Bruesewitz is credited with helping the Trump's movement cause as a social media keyboard warrior. He currently works as a senior advisor to Never Surrender, Trump's political action committee (PAC).
• While the German far-right is often critical of the US role in postwar Germany, seeing the defeat of Nazism as entirely problematic in the first instance, the return of Donald Trump to the White House has washed those concerns away – minus tariffs which remain bad for German industry – as the far-right AfD suddenly sees a chance at legitimacy through its transatlantic ties.

BERLIN, GERMANY – Germany bans Muslim Interaktiv, raids other Islamic groups

• Reuters reports German authorities banned the influencer group Muslim Interaktiv, which it accused of "anti-constitutional activities in calling for a caliphate," and raided properties belonging to two other Islamic groups Wednesday.
• Muslim Interaktiv organizes protests and is active on various social networks. It will now be forcibly disbanded and have its assets confiscated by the German government. The group rejects "that it wants to overthrow the social order". As part of the investigation into two other groups, Generation Islam and Realität Islam, seven properties were raided in Hamburg and 12 properties were raided in Berlin and the state of Hesse.
• Founded in 2020, Muslim Interaktiv drew attention for an April 2024 demonstration in Hamburg which featured roughly 1,000 participants who held signs with messages that included "Caliphate is the solution" and "Muslims will not stay silent". The group has approximately 19,000 followers on TikTok and YouTube

BERLIN, GERMANY – Authorities arrest aspiring jihadi accused of plotting attack

• Agence France Presse reports police in Berlin announced Sunday the arrest of a 22-year-old Syrian national in the Neukölln district who they accuse of plotting a "jihadist" attack.
• The Berlin prosecutor's office spokesman said the man was being held on suspicion of "preparing an act of a serious nature putting the country in danger". Authorities believe Berlin was the likely target of the alleged plot but no other details have emerged yet. Euractiv reports the suspect has been in Germany since 2023.
• The German tabloid Bild reported that police conducted searches of three properties linked to the suspect which "turned up items that could be used to build explosives."

BERLIN, GERMANY – Flights suspended at airport for two hours over drones

• France 24 reports flights at Berlin Brandenburg Airport were suspended for nearly two hours between 8:08pm and 9:58pm last Friday in the evening "due to sightings of unidentified drones".
• The incident is "the latest in a series of similar scares across Europe". Previously, drones were spotted at airports in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Poland; Estonia, Germany and Romania have all pointed the finger at Russia for the incidents while authorities in Russia have "brushed off the allegations." Flights were diverted to other German airports for the two nearly two hours that flights were suspended last Friday.
• Brandenburg state police said they deployed a helicopter and a patrol car after the reported drone sighting, with the patrol car spotting the drone but no one was identified as responsible for the incident.

WIESBADEN, GERMANY – 18 arrested over online payments 'Operation Chargeback' fraud

• Reuters reports German authorities arrested 18 individuals Wednesday in an internationally coordinated investigation into online fraud and money laundering known as "Operation Chargeback" which used online payment providers.
• In total, 44 suspects including six who were employees of "large German payment service providers" are believed to have been involved in the large-scale fraud which involved the stolen credit card details of 4.3 million people in 193 countries, authorities said. Searches were also carried out in Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.
• In part, phishing scams were used to steal data which was then used to create phony subscriptions to fake porn and dating sites "all with support from payment firms," resulting in €300 million ($345 million) in fraudulent charges. While authorities "declined to name the payments firms" a source "with direct knowledge of the matter" told Reuters the firms included Unzer and Nexi. In separate statements, Unzer said it had cut ties with the questionable businesses in 2020 and Nexi said it had done the same the following year.

HANAU, GERMANY – Authorities detain Romanian accused of drawing swastikas in blood

• The AP reports police in Hanau said Thursday they had detained a 31-year-old Romanian national they accuse of "painting swastikas with his own blood on dozens of cars".
• Police were alerted to the incident Wednesday night when a man reported seeing "the shape of a swastika applied in a reddish liquid on the hood of a parked car," which tests showed was human blood. The use and display of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, unless it is for so-called educational purposes, which this was most certainly not.
• The Romanian national was arrested in his own home after police were "tipped off by a witness." Police spokesman Thomas Liepold said the man appeared to be drunk and his motivation was "highly personal and job related". He also had "self-inflicted" injuries and is currently being examined in a psychiatric hospital.

PARIS, FRANCE – Two more charged in audacious Louvre jewelry heist

• France 24 reports prosecutors in Paris said that two more suspects, a man and a woman, were charged and remanded to custody Saturday over the audacious jewelry heist in the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre three weeks ago, bringing the number of suspects charged in the case to four.
• A 38-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man are the latest to be charged in the minutes-long daytime robbery of jewels valued at €88 million ($102 million). The pair were arrested last Wednesday along with three other suspects who have since been released. While the stolen jewels remain missing, France 24 reports Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told franceinfo radio that the heist was not perpetrated by "the upper echelons of organised crime" with all of the suspects hailing from "a low-income area north of Paris."
• In court, the woman, who has been charged with complicity in organized theft as well as criminal conspiracy, was in tears "saying she feared for her children and for herself". A resident of the northern suburb of La Corneuve, a magistrate ordered her detained on the grounds that she presented a "risk of collusion" and "disturbance of public order". The man was charged with organized theft and criminal conspiracy and was previously known to authorities as he had a record of theft.

PARIS, FRANCE – Consumer watchdog reports Shein for selling 'childlike' sex dolls

• The BBC reports Sunday France's consumer watchdog, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control reported fast fashion retailer Shein for selling "childlike" sexdolls on its website.
• Le Monde notes Shein responded to the initial threats by announcing that it was "banning all sex dolls from sale on its sites" later Monday in addition to launching an internal inquiry. CEO Donald Tang both blamed "third-party vendors" but also said, "I take personal responsibility." French media reported Chinese e-commerce rival AliExpress "sold the same dolls" and France's anti-fraud office announced legal action would be taken against that company.
• In a statement, the watchdog said the description and categorization of the items in question online made it "difficult" to ignore "the child pornography nature of the content". On Monday, The New York Times reports France threatened to ban the e-tailer over the items on the eve of the company's plans to open its first physical store in the French capital Wednesday. That same day, Shein said it was suspending e-commerce in France over the evolving scandal according to Politico. The big known unknown: who put these items up for sale on the platform and tipped off the watchdog and Le Parisien which ran with the story in the first instance.

ILE D'OLÉRON, FRANCE – Man rams car into pedestrians and cyclists on holiday island

• The BBC and Le Monde report a 35-year-old man "deliberately drove" a car into pedestrians and cyclists before setting fire to the vehicle, injuring ten people including two critically, on the French holiday island of Oléron Wednesday morning.
• The incident began around 8:45am local time and lasted approximately 35 minutes. The man was known to authorities for petty crime though not for radicalization, France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. However, the public prosecutor of La Rochelle, Arnaud Laraize, earlier said the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" at the time of his arrest.
• Witnesses described a series of incidents in various towns throughout the island which is "a popular holiday destination" and connected to the mainland via a bridge. It is the second largest French island after Corsica.

PRAGUE, CZECHIA – Incoming Prime Minister signs coalition agreement with far-right

• Politico reports the likely next prime minister of Czechia, Andrej Babiš, signed a coalition agreement Monday with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy Party and the right-wing Motorists for Themselves.
• The coalition will hold a combined 108 seats in the 200-seat parliament. Of those seats, the ANO Party of Babiš holds 80 seats.
• Last week, Czech President Petr Pavel "tapped" Babiš to form a new governing coalition. It is the first step towards an official nomination as prime minister-designate.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Austrian Airlines resumes flights to Tehran

• Agence France Presse reports Austrian Airlines resumed flights to the Iranian capital Tehran Sunday "after a nearly five-month suspension triggered by the Israel-Iran war."
• The first flight to Tehran since flights were suspended departed Vienna Sunday evening. German carrier Lufthansa announced plans to resume flights in December though no exact date has been announced though "a precise restart date" will be announced closer to the actual date flights will resume.
• Both carriers suspended flights in June at the start of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa both are part of the Lufthansa group which also includes Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss Air.

LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA – President says the state failed to provide security in southeast

• Slovenian state-run STA reports Slovene President Nataša Pirc Musar told parliament Monday that the state had failed to provide security in the southeast of the country, labeling the security situation there as "aggravated".
• She called for "well-founded and fair legislation" to be passed while calling on the country's Roma community "to assume their share of responsibility."
• The comments come a week after a brutal assault outside a nightclub in Novo Mesto which led to the death of a man and was followed by the resignations of two ministers. That incident has been blamed on members of the Roma community and resulted in widespread public outrage.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Top court upholds lower court ruling on 'Kill Erdogan' banner

• Euronews reports the Swiss Federal Tribunal upheld a lower court ruling Wedneday that sentenced four defendents to fines and suspended prison sentences over a banner that appeared at a 2017 protest in Bern which read "Kill Erdogan" and featured the Turkish leader with a gun pointed to his head.
• The four were convicted in 2020 by a regional court which handed down the initial punishment. The high court said it had considered "the concrete circumstances" and determined that "the banner cannot objectively be considered anything else than a clear and urgent incitement to kill the Turkish president". The court said that the convictions "are in line with freedom of expression and assembly," adding the banner "went beyond provocative speech or virulent criticism," which Swiss law protects.
• Other banners and flags at the rally supported imprisoned Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Öcalan who remains imprisoned on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea despite calling on his organization, the Kurdish Workers' Party or PKK, to lay down their weapons. Erdogan cited the "Kill Erdogan" banner while campaigning for constitutional changes in 2017 which granted him sweeping powers in the wake of a doomed coup attempt blamed on the Gülen Movement in 2016.

Stay safe and don't mind The Discourse™!

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