Italian police arrested a man on Thursday for allegedly killing a Nigerian refugee in a racist attack that has shocked Italy, further fuelling political debate on the long-running immigration crisis.
Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi, 36, was attacked on Tuesday in the small, central Italian town of Fermo, after coming to the defence of his wife, Chinyere Emmanuel, who was verbally abused by two Italians, locals told Reuters.
Emmanuel told police that her husband was knocked unconscious by a man wielding a road-sign pole.
“The assailant continued to kick and punch him even when he was lying on the ground,” said priest Vinicio Albanesi, who had offered the couple shelter in a nearby centre that is home to more than 100 migrants and asylum seekers.
Nnamdi died in hospital on Wednesday.
The pair came to Italy last year on a boat from Libya after escaping an attack on their church in Nigeria by the Boko Haram sect. Their child and both their parents died in that assault, friends told Italian media.
Police officers said they had arrested Amedeo Mancini, 38, on suspicion of murder motivated by racism.
The suspect’s lawyer told AGI news agency that the dynamics of the incident had not yet been established.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi dispatched his interior minister to the town on Thursday to discuss the killing with local authorities.
“The government today is in Fermo, alongside father Vinicio and the local institutions in memory of Emmanuel. Against hatred, racism and violence,” Reuters quoted Renzi as saying in a tweet.