A 23-year-old Guinean migrant said
Thursday he would file a complaint after being hit by a
carabinieri police officer while being forced to get into a
service vehicle following his arrest in Modena on Wednesday
morning.
'I want to file a complaint.
They beat me for no reason, I
hadn't done anything," the Guinean national told ANSA after a
video filmed by a passer-by showing him being punched by the cop
was shared on social media.
"Yesterday morning while I was waiting for the bus the
carabinieri asked me for my documents and I didn't have them on
me," said the man, who arrived in Italy as an unaccompanied
minor six years ago, has a regular permit of stay and works as
an assistant chef in a restaurant in Modena.
"I told them I could call a friend who would bring them to me.
But they wanted to throw me in the car.
I work, I have never
done anything wrong," he insisted.
The man was arrested for resisting a public official and
damaging a patrol car and subsequently released.
"We have never seen anything like this in Modena, until now I
had only seen such things in American films," said the man's
lawyer Barbara Bettelli.
"They laid into him with unnecessary violence. If a person
opposes a legitimate control he should be restrained, not
beaten," she added.
The man's boss said the police had got "the wrong person".
"He has been working for this restaurant for six years, he has
never made a mistake," Mario Campo, the owner of the Sicilian
Pastry Restaurant 'Cirisiamo' in Modena, told ANSA, describing
him as "an exquisite and committed person".
"He calls me 'daddy Mario,' I raised him professionally. He has
been working here for six years. He arrived on a boat, received
international protection and through the social worker he came
to work here, first as a dishwasher, then he made a career and
he is now a now cook for the main course dishes," he added.
The hearing has been set for April 18.
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