Video showing the final moments of Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan-born entrepreneur, struggling to breathe while pinned face down by Italian police in Bologna has triggered street protests, a formal prosecutorial investigation and a bitter political row over policing and immigration in Italy.

What the video shows
Fakir died on Sunday in Bologna’s Pilastro district after officers were called to deal with a man reported to be behaving erratically and damaging parked vehicles. Footage filmed by a resident and widely circulated online shows two officers, joined briefly by a third man, restraining Fakir on the ground after handcuffing him, with Fakir repeatedly calling for help in Italian before his movements gradually stop. Police say they used pepper spray after he resisted arrest.

Paramedics were present at the scene but, according to reporting, neither they nor the officers appeared to immediately register that Fakir had stopped breathing; officers finished binding his ankles before medical personnel turned his body over to check his vital signs. Investigators have said Fakir was believed to be experiencing a psychiatric crisis at the time, and family members have said he suffered from asthma and heart problems.

Protests and political division
Footage of the incident prompted hundreds of people to gather in Bologna’s Piazza Nettuno on Monday evening at a demonstration organized by Mayor Matteo Lepore and backed by major trade unions, with demonstrators kneeling and raising fists in a gesture associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Some protesters threw a firecracker near police buildings, and police responded with tear gas and water cannon. Comparisons to George Floyd’s 2020 killing by US police have circulated widely across Italian media and politics, with opposition figures demanding accountability and leaders of Italy’s right-wing governing coalition defending the officers involved. Police unions have cautioned against drawing conclusions from the video alone while the investigation continues.

An untested legal procedure and an unresolved question

Bologna prosecutors have opened an inquiry into two officers and four paramedics under Italy’s newly introduced “model 45 bis” procedure, a mechanism created under a recent security decree specifically to give police officers greater legal protection when accused of wrongdoing in the course of duty, being applied for the first time in this case. An autopsy has been ordered, and officers’ bodycam footage has been requested to help determine whether the restraint contributed to Fakir’s death or whether a medical emergency played a role; the two officers remain on active duty during the investigation.

Fakir’s family lawyer described him as a longtime legal resident who had lived in Italy since childhood and feared deportation despite his status, a detail that has sharpened the case’s resonance amid Italy’s broader, highly charged debate over migration and how security forces treat migrant and diaspora communities.

Why this resonates on the continent
For African communities across Europe, and for Morocco and the wider Maghreb in particular, the case lands amid persistent scrutiny of how European police forces treat African and Arab migrants during arrests, echoing earlier controversies in France, Belgium and elsewhere over deaths in police custody involving people of African or North African origin. It also arrives as Italy’s government continues to tighten migration and security policy more broadly, a trend Ghanaian and West African diaspora communities in Europe have themselves flagged as a source of growing anxiety, regardless of one’s legal status.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

[email protected]
+233-555-275-880
References:
Al Jazeera, “Protests in Italy after Moroccan man dies during arrest,” 20 July 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/20/protests-in-italy-after-moroccan-man-dies-during-arrest

NBC News, “Man’s death during police arrest in Italy leads to street protests,” 20 July 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/world/italy/italy-police-protests-man-dies-arrest-george-floyd-bologna-rcna588330

CBS News, “Video of Moroccan man dying while pinned down by Italian police sparks anger, investigation,” 20 July 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-bologna-abderrahim-fakir-moroccan-man-dies-police-video/

The New Arab, “Anger in Italy after Moroccan dies in police custody,” 20 July 2026, https://www.newarab.com/news/anger-italy-after-morroccan-dies-police-custody

AzerNews (citing ANSA), “Demonstration in Bologna after man dies while being handcuffed by police,” 20 July 2026, https://www.azernews.az/region/261315.html

Reuters via Global Banking and Finance, “Man’s Death in Police Custody Sparks Protests in Bologna, Italy,” 20 July 2026, https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/mans-death-police-arrest-italy-leads-street-protests/