Bologna, July 20, 2026 – While the Prosecutor’s Office is conducting investigations (registered with form 45 bis) on six people (two law enforcement officers and four healthcare workers), the day after Fakim’s death at Pilastro is full of tensions. The unions, political and administrative parties express condolences, but clarity and thorough investigations are also demanded.
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The Ausl of Bologna has also opened an internal procedure to verify the actions of the 118 healthcare workers who intervened. Last night about 200 people gathered in a sit-in at Pilastro to remember Fakim, but also to protest against his death. He actually died during a police intervention, called by residents, as the 42-year-old who later died “was having an outburst.” The 118 also received a call for a ‘person in psychiatric crisis’. An autopsy will be performed to understand the causes of death, which occurred while he was lying on the ground, face down, handcuffed.
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“Triggered by social media, there is an attack on an institution that by its principle indiscriminately helps all citizens. This hurts us and the rescuers, who today are being labeled as people who did not do their duty.” This is what the Bologna Red Cross told Ansa. The four rescuers, in the case of Fakir Abderrahim, “were there, waiting to intervene. It is not conceivable that they could do so on a subject who at that moment was under the hands of law enforcement. When we were allowed to intervene, we did,” adds the Red Cross.
“First of all, I express my deep condolences and my closeness to the family of the man who died at Pilastro. The loss of a human life is always a tragedy and demands respect, just as the pain of his loved ones and the full ascertainment of the truth deserve respect. At the same time, I express full solidarity with the State Police officers who intervened after the residents’ call for help. They also have the right to see the facts reconstructed rigorously, impartially, and without external pressures.” This is what the general secretary of the New Carabinieri Union Emilia-Romagna, Giovanni Morgese, said.
“He was an extremely kind, polite, respectful person. A worker who cared about his company and his employees. He is the last of my clients for whom I would have imagined such an end.” This is how lawyer Barbara Spinelli, who assisted Abderrahim Fakir in a procedure for the renewal of his residence permit, remembers the 42-year-old. The lawyer says she met Fakir at the end of last year. “He was already perfectly in order, it was simply about the renewal of the residence permit. He had been living legally in Italy since childhood,” she emphasizes. Spinelli describes Fakir as “one of those people increasingly rare today.” “Although he had my personal number for emergencies, he never pressured me, nor called outside office hours. When he asked me to expedite the procedure, he always did so very politely, explaining his reasons, thanking me. Manners that are almost obsolete today.” According to the lawyer, the 42-year-old was “a man with a good heart,” with a strong sense of responsibility. “He had a business, employees, and spoke like a good family man, even though he had no children. He was worried about the future of his company and the people who worked with him.” In recent months, she adds, Fakir had expressed fears related to the entry into force of the new European Pact on migration. “He had an unfounded fear of being sent away from Italy. I tried to reassure him: I told him he was the last person who should be afraid, because he had all the documents in order.”
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