Italy: Protests in Bologna over death of immigrant in police custody
Demonstrators are demanding answers over the death of 42-year-old Abderrahim Fakir. Local authorities have urged calm while the investigation is underway. A day after police
Demonstrators are demanding answers over the death of 42-year-old Abderrahim Fakir. Local authorities have urged calm while the investigation is underway. A day after police and protestors clashed in the northern Italian city of Bologna, local authorities on Tuesday urged residents to remain calm and await the results of an official investigation into the death of Abderrahim Fakir. "They killed my brother in cold blood, I want justice," Fakir's sister Khadija told reporters following his death in the city's Pilastro neighborhood on Sunday. What do we know about the death of Abderrahim Fakir? According to Italian media, Fakir came to Italy from Morocco at the age of 7 with his family, and they settled in Bologna. He ran a cleaning business and was a legal permanent resident of Italy. He was in Pilastro visiting friends, family members reported. Bologna Police have said that they were called to the neighborhood on Sunday morning, responding to a call about a man causing damage to a vehicle.
Officers said that it was some 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) when they arrived, and that they tried to subdue Fakir with pepper spray before holding him down and handcuffing him when he continued to be aggressive. In a video widely circulated online, Fakir can be seen repeatedly calling for help and struggling to breathe before he stops moving. His family told Italian media that he had a history of asthma and heart problems, that he was married and not known to have any previous run-ins with authorities. Protests in central Bologna On Monday, a demonstration was held in Bologna's famous Piazza del Nettuno. Italian news agency ANSA reported that some protestors chanted anti-police slogans and one threw a firecracker, but that demonstrators were largely peaceful. ANSA added police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Italy's two main police unions have accused activists of using social media to conduct online witch hunts against police based on incomplete footage of the event and said that dozens of officers were injured in clashes with protestors.
Local authorities have urged calm, saying a thorough inquiry is being carried out. Bologna Police have said they plan to release the bodycam footage in full to investigators. Bologna health authorities have said they are also launching an investigation into how long it took to arrive on the scene. Police released smoke canisters to disperse protestors Image: Michele Lapini/REUTERS How have lawmakers responded? Mayor Matteo Lepore of the center-left Democratic Party (PD) also urged residents to await the full picture, but said you could tell that "something clearly went wrong." "You cannot die like this," he said, appearing alongside some of Fakir's loved ones. At the same time he expressed his confidence in the rule of law in the city and that the truth would be borne out. He thanked a niece of Fakir for calling for "respect, truth, and justice, not revenge." Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also called for the full truth to come to light, but accused online agitators of fomenting "hatred against the police." Edited by: Rana Taha Don't let the algorithm hide the news.
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