Why Abderrahim Fakir’s death reignited Italy’s police accountability debate | News

Bologna, Italy – Six minutes and 56 seconds. That’s the size of the video capturing the ultimate moments of Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan-born man who had lived in Bologna, northern Italy, for greater than three a long time.

Filmed shortly after 12:30pm native time (10:30 GMT) on Sunday from the balcony of a close-by house block, the footage exhibits two Italian cops and a civilian restraining Fakir on the bottom. He repeatedly screams for assist. 4 Italian Pink Cross volunteers, who arrived with an ambulance, stand close by.

For greater than 4 minutes, Fakir cries out. Then he falls silent. His ankles are secured with a black plastic zip tie. Solely after the restraint ends do paramedics realise Fakir has misplaced consciousness.

“I ask you to pay attention very fastidiously to that video,” says Fabio Anselmo, the lawyer representing Fakir’s household, throughout a July 21 information convention within the Italian Senate hosted by Senator Ilaria Cucchi.

Cucchi’s brother, Stefano, died in police custody in 2009. Anselmo represented the household in the course of the authorized battle that led to the conviction of a number of officers, making the case a logo of Italy’s wider wrestle over police accountability.

“When the officers arise, Fakir should still be alive,” Anselmo says. “But nobody makes an attempt to assist him. Nobody removes the restraints.”

“I’ve spent nearly 30 years coping with circumstances like this,” he provides. “The European Court docket of Human Rights has already condemned Italy.”

Anselmo was referring to a January 2026 ruling by the European Court docket of Human Rights within the case of Riccardo Magherini, who died in Florence in 2014 after police restrained him face down.

The court docket discovered that Italy had violated Article 2 of the European Conference on Human Rights as a result of the authorities had failed to indicate that sustaining him in that place was “completely crucial”.

Hours after Fakir’s dying, Bologna police stated officers had responded to studies of “an individual behaving violently”. They stated emergency providers had been known as instantly and that Fakir died after “restraint procedures” have been carried out within the presence of medical personnel.

Prosecutors ordered a autopsy examination, whereas Bologna’s native well being authority opened an inner investigation.

The footage unfold quickly throughout social media. Inside hours, dozens gathered on the website the place Fakir died. Later that afternoon, throughout a spontaneous vigil, his sister held up {a photograph} of her brother as she spoke to reporters.

“My brother wasn’t an animal. He was a father, a employee, a superb man. Why did they do that to him?” she stated by way of tears. “I would like everybody to see his face. I would like individuals to know who he was. We don’t need revenge. We would like justice.”

Mates and legal professionals who knew Fakir stated his remaining months have been marked by concern and monetary stress.

Concern and fallout

Barbara Spinelli, who had represented Fakir on immigration issues for years, advised Al Jazeera that he had struggled with extreme monetary difficulties.

“He began a small removals and logistics enterprise, however after a number of shoppers did not pay for accomplished work, he was pressured to put off workers and fell into debt,” she stated.

In accordance with Spinelli, Fakir had grown more and more anxious about Italy’s harder migration debate, together with discussions round deportations and the implementation of the European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The pact, adopted in 2024 and as a result of be absolutely applied from 2026, launched new guidelines on migration administration, asylum procedures and returns of individuals with out authorized standing.

She stated Fakir feared he might be expelled from Italy, though there have been no authorized grounds on the time for such motion towards him. It stays unclear whether or not these fears had any connection to the occasions that led to his encounter with police on July 19.

“I saved reassuring him there have been no authorized grounds for that to occur,” she advised Al Jazeera. “However that concern by no means left him.”

On the night of July 20, Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore known as for a solidarity rally in Piazza Maggiore in help of Fakir’s household. 1000’s gathered, together with commerce unionists, college students and civil rights organisations.

What started as a peaceable demonstration descended into confrontation when a part of the group marched in the direction of the close by Prefecture, the native workplace representing Italy’s central authorities, and town’s police headquarters.

Protests flip violent

Clashes broke out after protesters reached a line of riot police.

Demonstrators threw bottles and fireworks, smashed store home windows and money machines, and set two automobiles alight. Police used baton costs, water cannon and tear fuel.

A number of demonstrators later accused the police of utilizing extreme drive.

Jacopo, who requested to be recognized solely by his first title, advised Al Jazeera that officers tackled him from behind and threw him to the bottom.

“I coated my face with my arms, they usually began hitting me with batons and punching me,” he stated.

Along with his arms raised, he stated he advised officers: “I’m doing what you’re telling me. You’re hurting me.”

“I don’t care. Shut up,” one officer allegedly replied, because the beating continued.

Jacopo was later taken to hospital, the place docs recognized a number of bruises and a watch damage.

A contract journalist working for L’Espresso, an Italian weekly information journal, advised Al Jazeera that officers beat him whereas he retreated from the clashes.

Video printed by the journal exhibits him shouting, “I’m a journalist! I’m a journalist!” as an officer repeatedly struck him with a baton. He stated the assault ended solely after he managed to flee.

Police stated 64 officers have been injured in the course of the unrest and that Bologna’s historic centre suffered intensive injury.

Political reckoning

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence, calling the clashes “unacceptable”. She stated Fakir’s dying “should be absolutely established, with out prejudice and with out reductions for anybody”, whereas including that “nothing can justify violence towards legislation enforcement officers”.

Opposition events known as on Inside Minister Matteo Piantedosi to report back to parliament on the circumstances surrounding Fakir’s dying and launch any body-camera footage recorded by the officers concerned.

A check of accountability

The investigation would be the first performed below Italy’s new Article 45-bis process, launched by the Meloni authorities’s Safety Decree, which got here into drive in February 2026.

Underneath the process, cops aren’t instantly entered into the register of prison suspects when alleged offences are dedicated in the midst of their duties. Opposition events, authorized students and human rights organisations say the change might make it tougher to carry officers to account.

Anselmo known as the reform “a authorized monstrosity”.

“It wasn’t designed to strengthen the rule of legislation,” he stated. “It was designed to fulfill a part of public opinion.”