ROME, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Muslim religious leader from Kosovo was expelled from northern Italy for security reasons, local media reported on Tuesday.
Idriz Idrizovic, 39, was deported from near the city of Lecco in the northern Lombardy region, where he lived since 2008, by order of the Italian Interior Ministry, according to Ansa news agency.
The man was allegedly linked to other Muslim preachers from the Balkans, who were also believed to support an extremist view of religion, according to Ansa reports.
Officers from military police Carabinieri stopped the imam at his home on Monday, and a court in Lecco later upheld the ministry's expulsion order on the basis that the man represented a danger for Italy, state broadcaster RAI News 24 also reported. He was to be brought to Milan airport for a flight to Kosovo on Tuesday.
Idrizovic lived in a small town in the province of Lecco with his wife and five children.
According to official data, as of Oct. 25, Italy's Interior Ministry had registered 89 expulsions this year, and 221 carried out from Jan. 1, 2015, all of which concerning people suspected of religious extremism leanings.
