Thousands of people protested in Bologna and other Italian cities on Monday following the death of a 42-year-old Moroccan man during a police operation, with clashes breaking out between demonstrators and police in the northern university city.<\/p>\n
Protesters carried placards reading “Truth and Justice,” while representatives of the man’s family called for a full investigation.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said some protesters threw bottles and Molotov cocktails at police after an initially peaceful demonstration. Italian news agency ANSA reported that window grilles were torn from armoured police vehicles, prompting police to use water cannon and tear gas.<\/p>\n
Emergency services said at least 11 people, including protesters and police officers, were injured. A lawyer for the dead man’s family condemned the violence.<\/p>\n
The Moroccan man, who had lived in Italy for more than 30 years, died on a street in Bologna on Sunday after being restrained by two police officers. Video footage captured by a local resident showed him lying face down with his hands handcuffed behind his back, repeatedly shouting, “Aiuto. Basta, basta!” (“Help! Enough, enough!”) before becoming motionless.<\/p>\n
Two paramedics are visible in the footage but do not intervene. After several minutes, the man stops moving. A doctor later pronounced him dead.<\/p>\n
Interior Ministry pledges ‘complete transparency’ in investigation<\/p>\n
The case has drawn widespread attention in Italy amid allegations of excessive use of force by police. The Interior Ministry in Rome has pledged “complete transparency” in the investigation.<\/p>\n
But politicians from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing governing coalition have defended the officers. The governing Lega party said the officers had simply carried out their “duty.”<\/p>\n
Investigators hope an autopsy will clarify the cause of death, including whether he may have had any pre-existing medical conditions. Prosecutors have also received body camera footage from one of the officers involved, as well as the video recorded by the local resident.<\/p>\n
Preliminary investigations have been opened into the two police officers on suspicion of manslaughter, as well as four paramedics who, according to the video, initially only observed the incident.<\/p>\n
The deceased man’s sister said: “I will not rest until my brother has been avenged. They beat him and killed him.”<\/p>\n
Police were called to Bologna’s Pilastro district around Sunday midday after neighbours reported that a man was behaving aggressively. The ANSA news agency reported that he struck a patrol car when officers arrived. They pepper-sprayed and handcuffed him.<\/p>\n
Man visited relatives in Bologna’s Pilastro neighbourhood<\/p>\n
It was unclear what had led to the trouble in Pilastro. The man had reportedly been visiting relatives, as he did regularly. A row had allegedly broken out in front of a garage. Police reportedly called the emergency services because the man showed signs of a psychiatric crisis.<\/p>\n
In Rome, the government is facing demands from the left of the political spectrum to provide information in parliament. The police are being defended by the right-wing camp, where calls for a tough stance against immigrants are frequent.<\/p>\n
Meloni, who is usually quick to praise the police, refrained in the first 24 hours from making any public statements on the case.<\/p>\n
Under Italy’s new security law, the officers have been entered into a separate preliminary register rather than the standard register of suspects. The mechanism applies to cases involving police or other public officials who use force while on duty where there appears to be an initial legal justification.<\/p>\n
A formal criminal investigation would begin only if that justification is later found not to apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people protested in Bologna and other Italian cities on Monday following the death of a 42-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1366,2842,23020,5,22972,22970,22971,23019,20896],"class_list":["post-34014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-bologna","tag-interior-ministry","tag-italian-news-agency","tag-italy","tag-pilastro","tag-police-officers","tag-police-operation","tag-police-vehicles","tag-the-interior-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}