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Rabat – An Italian boxer of Moroccan origins claimed victory over a native italian fighter whose body is tattooed with Nazi symbols.
Hassan Nourdine, 34, beat Michele Broili, 28, on points to win the Italian super-featherweight title in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste.
Nourdine, who moved to Italy with his parents when he was 6, said Broili’s racist and xenophobic tattoos were a further motivation for him to win the fight.
“I tried to stay focused and undistracted the whole evening, but seeing Broili’s tattoos glorifying Nazism disgusted me, not to mention the spectators giving stiff-armed fascist salutes,” the Moroccan-born Italian boxer told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper.
“I wanted to have a good fight given the situation,” Nourdine added.
The match was broadcast live on the Gazzetta dello Sport website, the largest sports newspaper in Italy.
It provoked anger in thousands of viewers, who objected to the numerous Nazi symbols tattooed on Broili’s body. Before the bout, Broili also made the fascist salute to his staff.
Broili’s tattoos include the SS logo, the totenkopf, a symbol of the paramilitary unit that helped run concentration camps in Nazi Germany, and the logo of a skinhead organisation from Veneto, a Celtic cross and the number 88, a neo-Nazi shorthand for the expression “Heil Hitler.”
Nourredine said that the Italian boxing’s governing body should have not allowed Broili. “They should have realized this boxer had certain leanings, considering the incitement of hatred is punishable by law.”
Nourdine, who works night shifts at a factory making industrial machinery to support his family and boxing career, said: “You need to make young people understand these are dangerous messages. You need to remind them these symbols encouraged genocide.”
After the fight, the Italian Boxing Federation (FPI) released a statement saying that all its members must refrain from any discriminatory behaviour.
It said it would submit the case to the sports justice body to investigate how Broili was allowed to enter the competition despite his manifestly racist and Nazi-glorifying political ideology.
However, the federation did not explain why such action was not taken sooner in the tournament. Broili played 16 professional matches before his latest this Sunday.
According to reports, in addition to the possibility of the boxer getting disbarred from the federation, police are also looking into the case, and prosecutors are evaluating whether to launch a criminal investigation.
Italian law bans the revival of fascism, including making fascist salutes, which carries a two-year prison sentence.
Though some Italian activists maintain that the law is rarely enforced, as investigators would probably have to prove Broili made the gesture in the context of an attempt at a fascist revival.
