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 condominium block, the footage exhibits two Italian cops and a civilian restraining Fakir on the bottom. He repeatedly screams for assist. 4 Italian Purple 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 throughout the authorized battle that led to the conviction of a number of officers, making the case a logo of Italy’s wider battle over police accountability.

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

“I’ve spent nearly 30 years coping with instances 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 point out that sustaining him in that place was “completely vital”.

Hours after Fakir’s demise, Bologna police mentioned officers had responded to reviews of “an individual behaving violently”. They mentioned emergency companies had been referred to 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 web site 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, an excellent man. Why did they do that to him?” she mentioned by means 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 attorneys who knew Fakir mentioned his remaining months have been marked by concern and monetary strain.

Worry and fallout

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

“He began a small removals and logistics enterprise, however after a number of purchasers did not pay for accomplished work, he was compelled to put off staff and fell into debt,” she mentioned.

In accordance with Spinelli, Fakir had grown more and more anxious about Italy’s more durable 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 resulting from be absolutely applied from 2026, launched new guidelines on migration administration, asylum procedures and returns of individuals with out authorized standing.

She mentioned 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 instructed Al Jazeera. “However that concern by no means left him.”

On the night of July 20, Bologna Mayor Matteo Lepore referred to as for a solidarity rally in Piazza Maggiore in help of Fakir’s household. Hundreds 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 gang marched in the direction of the close by Prefecture, the native workplace representing Italy’s central authorities, and the 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, instructed Al Jazeera that officers tackled him from behind and threw him to the bottom.

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

Together with his arms raised, he mentioned he instructed 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 medical doctors identified a number of bruises and an eye fixed damage.

A contract journalist working for L’Espresso, an Italian weekly information journal, instructed 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 mentioned the assault ended solely after he managed to flee.

Police mentioned 64 officers have been injured throughout the unrest and that Bologna’s historic centre suffered in depth injury.

Political reckoning

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence, calling the clashes “unacceptable”. She mentioned Fakir’s demise “have to 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 referred to as on Inside Minister Matteo Piantedosi to report back to parliament on the circumstances surrounding Fakir’s demise and launch any body-camera footage recorded by the officers concerned.

A take a look at of accountability

The investigation would be the first performed beneath 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 legal suspects when alleged offences are dedicated in the middle of their duties. Opposition events, authorized students and human rights organisations say the change may make it more durable to carry officers to account.

Anselmo referred to as the reform “a authorized monstrosity”.

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