Cecile Kyenge, a member of the
European Parliament for Italy's Democratic Party (PD) and former
Italian integration minister, on Monday said that she will
participate in a civil suit over the death of Nigerian migrant
Emmanuel Chidi Namdi.
Namdi was a 35-year-old asylum seeker who died last
Wednesday from a head injury he sustained after he was allegedly
punched in a fight sparked by a man calling Namdi's widow,
Chinyery, an "African monkey".
"I will stand as a civil plantiff as someone who is
continuing to bring forward a battle, along with a group of
organisations and associations in the fight against racism,"
Kyenge said, adding that PD wasn't involved.
"If the party wants to be a part it could; actually, it
wouldn't be a bad idea, because in my opinion this issue has
been underestimated and we haven't given an adequate response,"
she said.
Kyenge is also giving support to Namdi's widow.
"I've decided to stay close to her because I know how I
felt, very alone in some moments, where support was missing from
those who were supposed to give a concrete response: the law,
the institutions," she said.
Kyenge is herself involved in a case of alleged race hate
after anti-immigrant Northern League Senator Roberto Calderoli,
himself a former minister, in 2013 likened her to an orangutan.
Last September the Senate said the Bergamo-based case could
go ahead, but without the aggravating charge of instigation to
racial hatred.
Kyenge has appealed the Senate's ruling.
"The Senate's decision throws a heavy shadow on the fight
against racism, just when populism and xenophobia are growing
because of the refugee crisis," Kyenge said, saying the Senate's
decision not to allow the aggravating charge sent "a devastating
message to young people".
Kyenge, a doctor born in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
became Italy's first black minister in 2013 when she was sworn
into ex-premier Enrico Letta's cabinet.
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