Rabat – Abderrahim Fakir’s family lawyer announced that the investigation into the killing of the Moroccan man remains in its early stages.
This comes as only nine days remain until one month since Fakir’s killing on July 19 by two police officers in the presence of four paramedics.
Fabio Anselmo, Fakir’s family lawyer, told Moroccan news outlet Le360 that the Bologna prosecutor’s investigation is still in its “very first steps,” while denouncing a campaign of misinformation run by fake pages that the lawyer describes as “having been technically orchestrated and not accidental.”
Anselmo said the pages were created with the help of AI to publish posts that share misinformation on Fakir’s cause of death.
For the lawyer, these attempts are sought to divert public opinion from the responsibility of the two officers who violently restrained Fakir and caused his suffocation.
An autopsy was ordered and carried out last month on the killed man, while bodycam footage of the police undergoes examination under the prosecutor’s orders.
Calling the video “quite telling,” the lawyer argued that the government is refusing to acknowledge any responsibility from the officers involved.
The lawyer asked for the extraction of a certified copy of the police officers’ bodycam.
While government officials have been backing the Italian officers involved in Fakir’s killing, footage shows the gravity of his handling during his arrest, with the police officers violently pressing his chest onto the ground while he was pleading for help.
Minutes after his violent restraint, with his face down and pinned to the ground, the paramedics checked him and already found him dead.
The killing sparked protests and demands for truth and justice, with officials continuing to back police officers, claiming that they acted with professionalism.
Italian news and government officials also diverted attention to the Ceuta mass crossing to shift focus away from the case rather than focusing on Fakir’s case. The family of Fakir, however, continues its quest for the truth and urges authorities to conduct a fair probe to determine the real cause of his death.
