ROME -- A Libyan woman economics researcher at the University of Palermo, was arrested on charges of aiding foreign Jihadist fighters and incitement to violence, but released three days later on strict condition that she not leave Palermo. Reactions to the decision to release her led to clashes between the prosecutor's office and the judge leading the inquiry.

 Khadgia Shabbi, resident in Palermo for three years, was held last month on suspicion spreading Jihadist propaganda on social networks and of preparing the distribution of videos, images and instruction manuals for the recruitment of new IS militants, according to information provided by formiche.net.

 The judge's decision to release Ms. Shabbi with strict conditions for restriction of movement, but without any restriction on access to communication, was hotly contested by the prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi. Commenting on the outcome of the case, he expressed dismay that "such a sentence is completely inadequate for the protection required and for the very strong web of networks kept up by the accused, as well as contradictory to recent law. We will therefore be challenging it."

 The judge, Ferdinando Sestito, wrote in the incarceration injunction that "the custodial measure is proportional to the gravity of the act. As for the choice of sentence, one must not ignore the fact that the conduct of Ms. Shabbi was limited to an ideological stance, now public, and it was often limited to a personal situation, namely the death of a family member, not linked to any terrorist group." He emphasises that the inquiry found no evidence for such links.

 As for the cautionary measures taken, Sestito added, "there is no concrete reason to suppose either the possibility of escape or the danger of evidence tampering."

 Khadgia Shabbi had been monitored by the authorities for several months after it was reported that she was in contact with two foreign fighters, from Belgium and from the U.K., according to sources from Panorama in Italy.

 The same information claims that she had been planning the arrival of a cousin from Libya before he was killed in conflict.

 However, no evidence was found to confirm that Ms. Shabbi herself was involved in any terrorist organisations.

 Up until recent years Italy has been one of the European countries least affected by the growing phenomenon of home-grown terrorism, due to the strong pressure from Italian authorities on structured networks. Increasingly, however, the country is seeing a rise in radicalism, and it was reported by L'Espresso magazine in November 2015 that there were around 1000 "potential jihadists" monitored by the national intelligence authorities.

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