Death of Fakir in Bologna: family meets police chief Pisani
The sister and niece of Abderrahim Fakir met police chief Vittorio Pisani at police headquarters in Bologna. The family's lawyer is calling for the investigation to be carried out by an independent body.
Bologna police headquarters: the Fakir family meets the police chief
The sister and niece of Abderrahim Fakir — the man who died on Sunday 19 July in the Pilastro district during a police stop — presented themselves in the courtyard of Bologna police headquarters whilst police chief Vittorio Pisani was meeting officials and managers on the floor above. This is reported by la Repubblica.
Yossra Fakir and Khadija Fakir arrived alone and stopped ten metres from the entrance. To anyone who approached, they repeated the same phrase: "We have confidence in the judiciary, in the judges, in the investigations and we want to meet the police chief."
After almost an hour of waiting, a Digos officer reached them in the courtyard: "Doctor Pisani is expecting you upstairs." On the threshold of the office, questore Gaetano Bonaccorso was awaiting them; inside, Pisani came to greet them and offer his condolences.
A conversation lasting around ten minutes
The meeting lasted approximately ten minutes. Yossra spoke mostly: "We are not well, we are in pieces, but we only want the truth." Pisani guaranteed that the investigations would be conducted properly. The two women left police headquarters reiterating: "We have confidence in the judiciary, in justice and in the Italian police. Now we are more confident."
Pisani, half an hour after the meeting, crossed the courtyard without making any statement on the matter: "I am here only for a visit."
The lawyer calls for an independent investigation
The day had begun with a formal request from lawyer Fabio Anselmo to the public prosecutor. The Fakir family's lawyer asked that the inquiries into the death be entrusted to an investigative body different from the police, citing the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 15 January 2025.
According to Anselmo, that judgment establishes that "when members of institutions or law enforcement are involved in the facts subject to investigation, the inquiries must be conducted by authorities that are truly independent, free from hierarchical or operational ties with the agents concerned."
The lawyer clarified that this is not a matter of lack of confidence in Bologna's mobile squad, but of "a technical matter", reinforced — in his view — "by the very strong political pressures exerted on police headquarters, where ministers and figures from the centre-right went and publicly proclaimed the innocence of the officers when the investigations had barely begun", without "showing the slightest human solidarity towards Fakir and his family."
The family's gesture, according to the lawyer
In the evening Anselmo commented on the decision of sister and niece to present themselves at police headquarters: "It seems to me to be a signal from the family to which no institution has expressed solidarity. I believe they wanted to indicate that on 19 July a man died, and he was a family member of theirs."
Source: la Repubblica