In a statement, the Italian Embassy in Morocco announced that “at the request of Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, the Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, Pasquale Salzano, and the Italian Consul General in Casablanca met today with the wife of Abderrahim Fakir.”
On behalf of the Italian government, the two diplomats extended their condolences to Fakir’s widow and expressed their deepest sympathy to the family. They also reaffirmed the embassy’s and consulate general’s full commitment to supporting the family and providing all necessary assistance in the coming stages of this ordeal.
Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan who moved to Italy at the age of five, died on July 19 after being pinned to the ground by two police officers during his arrest in Bologna. A video recorded by a local resident and widely shared by Italian media shows Fakir being restrained face-down on the ground for several minutes.
He can be heard repeatedly crying, “Help! Help!” as the two officers hold him down while two ambulance workers stand nearby without intervening. Groaning in distress, he is later seen lying motionless, face down on the asphalt, as the officers bind his hands and feet. One of the officers eventually taps him on the shoulder to check whether he is still conscious. He is not.
A portrait of Abderrahim Fakir during a demonstration organized following his death on July 20, 2026
The Bologna Police Prefecture said footage from the officers’ body cameras had been handed over to judicial authorities, adding that police had responded after local residents reported a man experiencing “a violent outburst.”
Italian prosecutors opened an investigation the day after the incident, sparking outrage among sections of the public and prompting several hundred people to gather in central Bologna, where demonstrators carried banners reading “Justice and Truth for Fakir.”
The case has also revived memories of the 2014 death of Riccardo Magherini, who died after being restrained on the ground by Carabinieri officers in Florence. In that case, the European Court of Human Rights found Italy in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights over the absence of an adequate protocol governing police restraint techniques. Fakir’s family has entrusted the case to lawyer Fabio Anselmo, who also represented the families of Federico Aldrovandi and Stefano Cucchi. Fakir’s autopsy was carried out on Friday.
