Shocking video by El Koudri: "Italy must be destroyed" before the massacre

The delusional selfie videos recorded by Salim el Koudri in the 48 hours before the Modena attack last May 16 have emerged. In the footage, the 31-year-old man—of Moroccan parents but born in Bergamo—utters phrases such as "Italy must be destroyed" and "We are slaves of the Americans," lashing out against powerful elites, the wealthy, and Jews. Despite his personality disorder and withdrawal from psychiatric care, El Koudri employed a methodology similar to that of jihadists, studying online attacks using vehicles as battering rams.

In the videos, all in English, he addresses a hypothetical "brother," a term also used among jihadists. He posted the videos on Instagram before deleting them, but they remain on his seized phone. The Modena massacre, carried out by driving his Citroen C3 into a crowd, resulted in one death (Monica Esposito) and seven injured, including two with limb amputations. El Koudri will face charges of massacre, severe injuries, and voluntary homicide, with a hearing scheduled for October 2 to assess his mental capacity and will.

Salim el Koudri, 31 years old, a graduate in Business Economics from the University of Modena, lived in Ravarino (Modena) and suffered from a personality disorder, having withdrawn from psychiatric care. As early as 2021, frustrated by not finding work, he had sent an email to the university with invectives against Christians ("Christian bastards," "You and your Jesus Christ, I burn"). Between autumn 2024 and March 2025, he took a trip across Europe in the same car later used in the massacre, staying for extended periods in Germany and London, apparently without establishing contacts with structured Islamist communities.

His online radicalization is a key element: before the attack, he searched online for footage of jihadist attacks that used the "thousand cuts" tactic (with vehicles used as battering rams through crowds), a methodology promoted by ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al Adnani and already employed in attacks in Berlin, Nice, and Barcelona. Despite the absence of an official claim, the video of the massacre has been commented on in jihadist channels. The investigation is now focusing on Anglo-Saxon phone numbers found on his mobile, linked to video games and chess apps, systems sometimes used for covert communications.