Italy approves extradition of Nice attack suspect

ROME: An Italian court has approved the extradition to France of a man implicated in the deadly Bastille Day attack in Nice in 2016, the AGI news agency reported.
Endri Elezi, a 28-year-old Albanian, was arrested on April 21 on a warrant from France in the southern Italian town of Sparanize, north of Naples.
He is suspected of supplying weapons to the Tunisian man who rammed a truck into a crowd in the French city of Nice on July 14, 2016, the Bastille Day national holiday, killing 86 people.
Elezi, known as “Gino,” is accused of providing Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel with an assault rifle, according to French judicial sources.
A court in Naples approved Elezi’s extradition to France late Thursday, AGI reported.
During the hearing, he denied the accusations, saying: “I have never sold or provided weapons and I don’t know any of the people involved.”
The Naples court did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
Elezi was among eight people ordered by the Paris appeals court in March to stand trial for their alleged role in the 2016 attack. The trial will not take place until 2022.
Bouhlel was shot dead by police at the wheel of the vehicle he drove through crowds on Nice’s waterfront, wounding more than 400 people.
The attack came less than a year after the deadly assaults in November 2015 that saw 130 people killed in bombings and shootings across Paris, including at the Bataclan concert hall.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the Nice attack, although prosecutors said there was no evidence that Bouhlel had sworn allegiance to the extremist group.

Italy approves extradition of Nice attack suspect