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Marrakech – Italian police arrested a 27-year-old Algerian man on Thursday after slashing the face of a 23-year-old Moroccan woman on the platform of Milan’s Duomo metro station. The two did not know each other.
According to Italian media, the attacker, identified as Mohammed Saidi, approached the victim around 3:30 p.m. on the M3 line platform. He asked her, “What are you looking at? I am a man and a Muslim.” When she denied looking at him, he began insulting her and spitting on her before punching her in the face.
The young woman tried to defend herself with the help of a friend. But Saidi pulled out a small knife and slashed her across the lip and cheek.
“I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t see anything, and blood was preventing me from breathing,” the victim told investigators.
In her statement to police, she described the escalation. “With the help of my friend, I tried to push the man away to defend myself, but he reacted with great violence and punched me in the upper lip, causing a wound.” She added that Saidi asked whether she was calling the police before pulling out the knife and striking her in the face.
The victim was rushed to Milan’s Policlinico hospital in a medium-severity condition. The wound fortunately did not reach her eye. She was treated and discharged with a 10-day prognosis.
Saidi attempted to flee the scene but was chased by local police officers present on the platform. He was caught a short distance away on Via Torino, near Via Falcone.
He now faces charges of aggravated assault, resistance to a public officer, and permanent disfigurement of a person’s face – a crime introduced into Italian law in 2019.
Milan prosecutor Simona Ferraiuolo requested pretrial detention, citing flight risk and the likelihood of reoffending. Prosecutors may also consider the aggravating circumstance of hatred against a woman or racial and religious discrimination.
The case drew further scrutiny after it emerged that Saidi had already been arrested just hours earlier. Police detained him in Piazza Argentina for damaging parked cars and possessing stolen items taken from vehicles in the Rubattino area. He was then released with a ban on residing in Milan.
The victim, a Moroccan national legally residing in Italy, had been walking through central Milan with friends and was waiting for the train home when the attack occurred. Saidi is irregularly present in Italy.
Italy’s anti-terrorism unit, the Ros, is now conducting checks across Europe through Interpol to determine whether Saidi has ties to radicalized circles.
Read also: Embassy Condemns Anti-Morocco Acts by Algerian Individuals in France
