Revealed emails, a Bible in prison and psychiatric expertise: they dictated the preventive detention of the attacker who ran over a crowd in Modena

To keep him behind bars they relied on the escape attempt. The thing is that he only ran over a dozen people, leaving four seriously injured, and after crashing into the front of a business, he got out of the car and tried to escape. Even as pedestrians struggled to catch him, he pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them.

Thus, he was detained in Bologna. Initially, the authorities did not charge him with terrorism charges. In addition, they stated that the attack would not have been triggered by a mental health crisis of the aggressor.

For now, the Prosecutor’s Office charges him with the crimes of attempted multiple homicide because he acted “with the clear and manifest intention of endangering public safety, not only the lives of the injured people, on a central street in the city.” They suspect that with his maneuver he sought to attack as many people as possible. That is why they claim that it would not have suffered a crisis.

However, all hypotheses are under investigation. In fact, his lawyer requested a psychiatric examination. In the same sense, the judge asked to observe his behavior and left the door open to a possible transfer.

Koudri has schizoid personality disorder and for this reason he received care in the past at the Castelfranco Emilia Mental Health Center, according to what the investigating judge Donatella Pianezzi told The Republic. He began a therapeutic process in 2022 without his family knowing, but then interrupted it in 2024.

The attacker is from Ravarino, has family from Morocco and has been an Italian citizen since 2009, when he was 14 years old.

Although there is no accusation in this sense, the evaluation of a possible terrorist act has some very incipient clues. They come from the phone and devices of the aggressor, who provided his passwords to Justice.

El Koudri has a degree in Economics, but is currently unemployed. He worked in at least four companies for short periods, most importantly as a clerical clerk, a position he aspired to and was obsessed with.

From the analysis of the devices, emails emerged that can guide the investigation.

On April 27, 2021, between 7:28 p.m. and 8:38 p.m., he sent four emails to an address at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, with messages such as: “They must make me work as an employee, not as a warehouse worker, understand? And here in Modena, not at the end of the world where you have 500 euros left per month if you are lucky.” Then, minutes later: “Make it work.”

In the third email the tone hardened: “Fucking Christian Bastards“I’m going to burn you and your Jesus Christ on the cross.” Finally, an apology: “I’m sorry for the lack of respect.” At the time, the university reported the case to the security forces.

These would be, for now, the only elements that suggest a possible conflict of a religious nature, of a person who, furthermore, does not appear to have frequented Islamic environments or have links with organized groups.

His lawyer responded at this Tuesday’s hearing about another email. “Salim El Koudri contacted a NATO base in Tuscany to ask about the menu and how he could enlist,” the lawyer said.

In addition, they found texts written in Arabic, notes related to cryptocurrencies and medicines. In their networks, as the defense admitted, there were also insults against Chiara Ferragni, an influencer accused of fraud in Italy.

For now, the attacker will remain detained in Bologna, where he is isolated. He asked to smoke and have some books, including a Bibleand be able to meet with a priest.

When his lawyer, Fausto Giannelli, asked him about what he had done on Saturday, May 16, he responded: “I went out because that day I thought I was going to die. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Did you hear that a woman lost her legs?” His lawyer asked him about the situation of one of the victims. “What a terrible thing,” He responded, as if only at that moment he became aware, as if “he was talking about another person,” the lawyer added.

His sister, two years older, described the family pain and said that in recent years El Koudri was “increasingly withdrawn and introverted.” And he added: “We had not understood his illness or the severity of the illness that was brewing inside him and that did not manifest itself at home.”