The 31-year-old Palestinian, who dismembered the statue of the Virgin late  on December 1 in the Piazzale Giovannacci, is being held in the Gradisca D’Isonzo repatriation centre in Gorizia, northeastern Italy, waiting for deportation procedures to be completed.
The Islamic iconoclast intentionally stoned the head and hands of the statue to sever them from the body of the historic sculpture following the Koranic injunction to cast “terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; so strike the necks and strike every finger of them!” (8:12)
Police launched a search and arrested the migrant in the early hours of the morning after residents who spotted the vandalism called for help and gave the police a description of the vandal.