Rabat – Bologna’s Public Prosecutor’s Office rejected a request from Abderrahim Fakir’s legal team, who requested to transfer the ongoing investigation into the killing of the Moroccan man to another police unit.
Bologna’s Prosecutor’s Office, according to Italian news agency Ansa, said the inquiry’s impartiality is ensured through the direct supervision of the public prosecutors leading the case.
“The best guarantee of impartiality and distance between the facts under investigation and those conducting the investigation is the coordination of the public prosecutors,” the office said.
It argued that the investigation is being overseen by a team of magistrates, whose role ensures the impartiality of the inquiry.
Fabio Anselmo, the lawyer representing Fakir’s family, announced on Tuesday that he asked the Prosecutor’s Office to assign the investigation into the killing of the Moroccan man to a different investigative body.
Two police officers brutally tackled Fakir on July 19, violently restraining him with his chest pressed to the ground.
Face down and pleading for help, Fakir suffocated, but an autopsy is ongoing to determine the real cause of death, despite initial reports stating the victim had blood in his lungs, which explains the pressure and violent handling he endured during his arrest.
Italian government officials have been defending the two police officers, but Fakir’s family lawyer is determined to bring justice to light.
Anselmo said that his request for an independent investigation stems from “the intense political pressure exerted on the Bologna Police Headquarters.”
He added that ministers and members of the governing majority “visited the offices responsible for conducting the investigation, publicly proclaiming the officers’ innocence when the inquiry had only just begun.”
“They did so without expressing the slightest human solidarity toward Fakir and his family, thereby contributing to a climate incompatible with the impartiality and calm that should accompany such a sensitive investigation,” he said.
