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Bologna, Italy – Six minutes and 56 seconds. That’s the length of the video recording the last moments of Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan-born man who lived in Bologna, northern Italy, for more than three decades.
Taken shortly after 12:30pm local time (10:30 GMT) on Sunday from the balcony of a nearby house, the photo shows two Italian police officers and a civilian restraining Fakir to the ground. He screams again and again for help. Four Italian Red Cross volunteers, who arrived in an ambulance, stand nearby.
For more than four minutes, Fakir cries. Then he is silent. His ankles are tied with a black plastic zip tie. It was only after the restraints were over that the paramedics realized that Fakir had lost consciousness.
“I ask you to listen to this video very carefully,” says Fabio Anselmo, the lawyer representing the Fakir family, at a July 21 press conference at the Italian Senate hosted by Senator Ilaria Cucchi.
Cucchi’s brother, Stefano, died in police custody in 2009. Anselmo represented the family during the trials that led to several police convictions, making the case symbolic of Italy’s biggest struggle against police crime.
“If the police show up, Fakir might be alive,” says Anselmo. But no one tries to help him, no one removes the restrictions.
He added: “I have been dealing with cases like this for almost 30 years. The European Court of Human Rights has already criticized Italy.”
Anselmo was referring to the January 2026 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Riccardo Magerini, who died in Florence in 2014 after police held him face down.
The court found that Italy violated Section 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights because the authorities failed to show that he was “very important” to remain in this position.
Hours after Fakir’s death, Bologna police said police had responded to reports of a “brutal person”. He added that emergency services were called immediately and that Fakir died after “preventive measures” were carried out in the presence of paramedics.
Prosecutors ordered a post-mortem, while health authorities in Bologna opened an internal investigation.
The photos quickly went viral on social media. Within hours, many people gathered at the spot where Fakir died. That evening, his younger sister held a picture of her brother while talking to the media.
“My brother was not an animal, he was a father, a worker, a good person, why did they do this to him? He said while shedding tears. “I want everyone to see his face, I want people to know who he was. We don’t want revenge, we want justice.”
Friends and lawyers who knew Fakir said his final months were marked by fear and financial hardship.
Fear is falling
Barbara Spinelli, who has represented Fakir for years on immigration issues, told Al Jazeera that he had faced financial difficulties.
“He started a small removals and maintenance business, but after several clients failed to pay for the final work, he was forced to lay off employees and go into debt,” he said.
According to Spinelli, Fakir was particularly concerned about Italy’s difficult immigration debate, including the deportation talks and the implementation of the European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The agreement, which was signed in 2024 and is due to be implemented from 2026, introduced new rules on migration, asylum and return of undocumented migrants.
He also said that Fakir was afraid that he might be deported from Italy, even though there were no legal grounds at the time to do this to him. It is not yet known if the fear was related to the incident that led to the July 19 encounter with police.
“I kept on assuring him that there were no legitimate reasons,” he told Al Jazeera. But that fear did not leave him.
On the evening of July 20, the Mayor of Bologna Matteo Lepore called a solidarity meeting in Piazza Maggiore in support of Fakir’s family. Thousands of people gathered, including trade unions, students and human rights organizations.
What started as a peaceful demonstration turned into a conflict when a group of people marched towards the nearby Prefecture, the local office of the Italian central government, and the city’s police headquarters.
Demonstrations are violent
Violence broke out when protesters reached a line of riot police.
Protesters threw bottles and fireworks, smashed shop windows and cash machines, and set fire to two cars. Police used batons, water cannons and tear gas.
Several protesters later accused the police of using excessive force.
Jacopo, who asked to be identified by his first name, told Al Jazeera that police grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground.
He said: “I covered my face with my hands, and they started hitting me with a stick and punching me.”
After raising his hands, he said he told the police: “I’m doing what you’re telling me, you’re hurting me.”
“I don’t care, keep quiet,” one police officer reportedly replied, as the beating continued.
After some time, Jacopo was taken to the hospital where doctors discovered that he had many bruises and eye injuries.
A freelance journalist who works for L’Espresso, an Italian weekly magazine, told Al Jazeera that the police beat him when he left the war.
A video published in the magazine shows him shouting, “I am a journalist! As a policeman he was beaten repeatedly with a baton. He said the attack ended only when he managed to escape.”
Police said 64 police officers were injured during the riots and that Bologna’s famous landmarks were badly damaged.
Political calculations
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence, calling the clashes “unacceptable”. He said Fakir’s death “must be fully investigated, without discrimination and without exception”, adding that “nothing can justify violence against law enforcement officers”.
Opposition parties asked Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to explain to parliament the circumstances of Fakir’s death and release any camera footage taken by the authorities involved.
Response test
The investigation will be the first to be carried out under the new 45-bis procedure in Italy, which was introduced by the Meloni government Security Law, which came into force in February 2026.
Under the policy, police officers are not entered into the register of suspected criminals when they are on duty. Opposition parties, legal experts and human rights groups say the changes could make it harder to hold officials accountable.
Anselmo called the revision “legally wrong”.
“It’s not designed to promote the rule of law,” he said. “It’s designed to meet people’s expectations.”
