Man's death during police arrest in Italy leads to street protests

ROME, July 20 - A man in the northern Italian city of Bologna died while being held to the ground by police trying to arrest him, in an incident captured on video that has sparked street protests and which prosecutors are investigating.

Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born entrepreneur who ran a small removals and cleaning business, died on Sunday after police were called to deal with a man behaving aggressively and damaging a vehicle, Italian media said.

Footage of the incident filmed by a resident and widely shared online prompted hundreds of people to protest and drew responses from across the political spectrum, with opposition politicians demanding accountability and the governing coalition defending the officers involved.

According to the local daily Il Resto del Carlino, demonstrators chanted anti-police slogans and knelt with raised fists, adopting a gesture associated with the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in the United States following the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The footage showed Fakir lying face down on the ground while two officers restrain him. He can be heard repeatedly calling for help and struggling for breath before his movements gradually stop.

Bologna prosecutors and Italy's Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bologna police said they would give bodycam footage from the officers who intervened to the investigators.

According to media reports, officers called emergency services after arriving in the northeastern neighbourhood of Pilastro shortly after noon, when temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Police tried to calm Fakir before using pepper spray and holding him down while trying to handcuff him after he reacted aggressively, according to media reports.

"They killed my brother in cold blood, I want justice," Fakir's sister Khadija told reporters as hundreds of people in Pilastro took to the streets on Sunday, with some demonstrators chanting slogans against the police.

Another protest was due to take place in central Bologna on Monday, backed by centre-left Mayor Matteo Lepore, the Cgil trade union and other left-leaning organisations.

The right-wing League, part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, called for rigorous investigations but said police officers were "doing their duty" as they intervened "at the request of exasperated citizens". REUTERS