Article Author:
Associated Press
Colleen Barry
Civitanova Marche, Italy (AP) — Black Italians marched through a wealthy Adriatic seaside town on Saturday to oppose authorities and fight against Nigerian government officials. The role of race in the brutal daytime killings of migrants.
Several witnesses filmed the July 29th assault but did not intervene physically. A widely circulated video shows a man wrestling to the ground and strangling his vendor Arika Ogorchukwu, 39, on the street. murder.
Police arrested suspect Filippo Ferlazzo, 32, but quickly ruled out a racial motive for the attack in the Italian town of Civitanova Marche . Ferlazzo's attorney, Roberta Bizzarri, said prosecutors confirmed the decision in his client's indictment documents.
Police said Ferlazzo first tracked Ogorchuk to about 200 meters down a shopping street lined with luxury boutiques before beating him with crutches used by the seller. Some accounts say that Ogorchukwu complimented Ferlatzo's companions for trying to sell or ask for change, and other accounts said he touched or caressed his companion's arm.
Townsfolk have led law enforcement officials to blame the Nigerian man's death on a persistent street vendor who had an unfortunate run-in with a man with a court-documented history of mental illness.
"This is not a racist city," said newsstand owner Domenico Giordano. "This is an open city. If you behave well, you will be welcomed and even helped." I was. In front of his beachwear boutique, which was closed for lunch at the time.
Store owner Laura Latino said she received negative reviews from faraway Houston accusing her of standing by her side doing nothing when she wasn't there.
"Care should be taken when judging a city of 45,000 people," Latino said, adding that he believes death propaganda "is ruining the city's reputation."
City officials have expressed concern that the killings will become politicized as Italy prepares for parliamentary elections next month.
The role of race in the incident has been so condemned that the local newspaper il Resto del Carlino said during Saturday's march that "the word racism" I posted a headline promising not to use it.
However, the event's manifesto lists the recognition of the role of race in what happened to Ogorchukwu as the first of 11 demands. About 30 organizations said they aim to join the prosecution as civil plaintiffs on behalf of "racialized people".
Ogorchukwu's widow, her Charity Oriakhi, is reluctant to say the killings were racially motivated.
"Just a bad guy," Oriaki told her Associated Press. ``He wants to kill someone. He said he had never said he had had a negative interaction while on vacation. She said it used to happen.
The two men hail from different parts of Nigeria, having met in the Tuscan town of Prato about ten years ago shortly after Ogorchukwu's arrival in Italy, and later living in an apartment in Marche. was resettled in Above a marble workshop in the small hillside town of San Severino.
The Nigerian government condemned Ogorchukwu's death, and the West African country's foreign ministry urged Italian authorities to "prosecute without delay the perpetrators of the heinous acts."
A Nigerian who has lived in Italy for decades and the organizers of Saturday's march say race cannot be ruled out as a motive. The word discrimination exists and cannot be taken lightly," said Daniel Amanze, a Macerata-based activist who came to Italy from Nigeria as a student 40 years ago. He acknowledged that racism has become more "obvious" in recent years as some politicians scapegoat immigrants "as a cover for their poor management and everyday malaise". said it does.
Amanzeh said the killing of Ogorchukwu had renewed fear among Africans in Marche.
Ogorchukwu was on crutches, but a far-right political activist who targeted Africans in Macerata, where six of his people were injured in his town of Fermo in 2016, killed his wife. Attacked and killed after defending against species abuse. According to people who know him, his car crashed into him while he was riding his bike a year ago, leaving him with a limp. According to family lawyer Francesso Mantella, the vendor continued to sell goods ranging from tissues to straw hats. Even after Oriaki's job cleaning train stations and an insurance settlement ensured financial security.
The last time her widow saw her husband was when she gave her a sandwich at the train station before heading to Civita Nova on the Friday her husband died. It is said that it was She is haunted by the images in the video and has turned off the TV at her home so her son doesn't see them.
"I saw the video. My husband suffered like this when the boy was strangling him violently." There are people circled.They make videos.Nobody helps.I wish someone could save him.Maybe he wasn't dead." 76}
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Contributed by Chinedu Asadu, Lagos, Nigeria and Gianfranco Stara, Civitanova Marche.