Political and social tension has been escalating in Italy following the death of a Moroccan man on July 19 during a police operation in Bologna, which sparked protests and opened a debate about the country’s security law. The prosecutor’s office is investigating the conduct of the police officers and the Red Cross emergency personnel who were nearby on the day of the incident.
Read more U.S. imposes sanctions on the ICC president and a lawyer in another move against the court
He is Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old man born in Morocco, who died in the working-class neighborhood of Pilastro on Sunday, July 19. According to the account by The New York Times, based on a witness and a video, the man stumbled while going down some stairs, remained lying on the ground, and repeatedly asked for help.
Upon arrival, the officers spoke with him and then accompanied him down an alley, where, after an apparent struggle with another civilian, he was handcuffed and restrained on the ground while paramedics watched without intervening, according to the newspaper Le Monde. He died in less than an hour for reasons that have not yet been clarified.
The French newspaper indicated that the police were alerted by a local resident who, by phone, described Fakir as an “extracomunitario,” an Italian euphemism often used to refer to non-white people. The Moroccan, who was in an altered mental state at the time, said he feared for his life and was kicking garage doors. He was detained, restrained, sprayed with tear gas, and pushed face down onto the ground, where he pleaded for several minutes before falling silent. A neighbor filmed his agony, and the images flooded screens across the country over the next 24 hours.
For more than four minutes, Fakir screamed, reported the Al Jazeera portal. Then, he falls silent. His ankles are held with a black plastic zip tie. Only when they finish restraining him do the paramedics realize that Fakir has lost consciousness.
It is unclear what happened in the hours before his death. The Guardian reported that the police said they responded to complaints from neighbors about a man behaving erratically and aggressively. They called health services and informed staff that he was experiencing a psychiatric episode. Other videos recorded by neighbors before the police intervention showed Fakir in a state of extreme agitation and confusion. It was later learned that he had been referred for psychiatric treatment in June.
Amid the shock, some Italians have presented Fakir, owner of a logistics and construction company, as a victim of a system that discriminates against immigrants. Others highlight his drug trafficking convictions from the 2000s, as well as his parole violations.
Outrage over Fakir’s death spread and protests were held not only in Bologna but also in Rome, fueling a tense national debate about police management and immigration by the far-right government. It also put under scrutiny a broad security bill enacted by the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Fakir’s case is the first in which what is known as a new “legal shield,” Article 45-bis of Italy, introduced by the Security Decree that came into effect in February 2026, has been invoked. This grants public officials greater protection against prosecution if it can be shown they acted in self-defense or in the performance of their duties.
Thus, The Guardian noted, although the Bologna prosecutor’s office is investigating the two officers and the four health workers in connection with an involuntary manslaughter investigation, they will not be formally registered as suspects unless authorities determine that the use of force was unjustified.
The legal team of the two officers, who returned to work on Monday, vehemently denies that excessive force was used, stating they fully complied with the official protocol. Meanwhile, the health staff’s lawyers declared that they acted in strict accordance with emergency medical guidelines.
Critics of this legal protection have condemned the measure for granting too much power to the police, making it difficult to hold them accountable.
Fabio Anselmo, lawyer for the Fakir family, said this could jeopardize the investigation. “In this case, it is a rule that could generate impunity,” he stated.
More broadly, The New York Times noted, “the debate has become a widespread confrontation over police treatment and the role of foreigners in Italy, a country with high immigration rates that depends on migrant labor but whose government has taken steps to expel asylum seekers and undocumented workers.”
Read more The Premonition of Federico García Lorca’s Death Revealed by Pablo Neruda
Italians from opposing political factions have taken advantage of Fakir’s death and the ensuing unrest to debate immigration and racism, police brutality, and collective violence, the newspaper said.
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, condemned the violence, calling the clashes “unacceptable.” She said Fakir’s death “must be fully clarified, without prejudice or concessions to anyone,” and added that “nothing can justify violence against law enforcement officers.”
In Pilastro, a working-class neighborhood with a population of approximately 7,000, of whom 25% are immigrants, Fakir’s family and friends are also concerned that politics may interfere with justice, The Guardian reported.
A banner tied to the railing at the corner of Via Italo Svevo, the street where he died, reads: “Truth and justice for Fakir: the State kills.” Similar messages are scribbled on bus stops.
The Guardian noted that Fakir lived in another area of Bologna but often returned to Pilastro to see his brother, Mohamed, and childhood friends, including his Moroccan compatriot Mike El Canas.
“He was a good person, very kind and full of life,” El Canas told the British newspaper. “He had many friends in the Moroccan community, but also among Italians.”
In a letter published by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Barbara Spinelli, a lawyer who was helping Fakir renew his residence permit, wrote that he feared deportation due to the European Union migration pact on “return centers,” despite the assurances she had given him, and that he regretted having to lay off people due to the economic slowdown.
This is not the first time Pilastro has attracted attention, The Guardian recalled. In 2020, it was in the news during the regional election campaign when Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party and current deputy prime minister, rang the doorbell of a Tunisian family’s home to ask them via intercom if they were drug traffickers. Salvini, who in the past has posed as a police officer in uniform, defended the police after Fakir’s death.
The neighborhood has also suffered the consequences of a measure in the security bill that suppresses peaceful dissent, after 33 people accumulated thousands of euros in fines during a protest earlier this year against the construction of a museum that would occupy a large part of the area’s only park. One person was detained for a couple of days for climbing a tree.
However, many are too afraid to speak out, even more so after Fakir’s death. “The police have the power, a uniform that protects them, and we are nobody,” El Canas said. “But we must raise our voices, because if not, what will become of us, the ordinary citizens?”
“With Meloni striving for a second term in next year’s general elections while defending herself from a new far-right rival, Roberto Vannacci, the climate is expected to become even more polarized as she promotes her main political proposals: security and immigration, the latter evident in her response to the mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta,” The Guardian noted.
“Fakir’s story illustrates how words and these types of laws translate into practice,” Cecilia Sottilotta, associate professor of political science at the University for Foreigners of Perugia, told that outlet. “But these security measures have long been in the plans of the Italian far right, which has always insisted that the police must act with total impunity. Now, the overall perspective is crucial. Migration has been instrumentalized. While this is not new, we will see more examples of it with the upcoming elections.”
Read more The murder of Federico García Lorca: why they killed him and the mystery of his body
