Mystery Surrounds Death of North African Man in Milan Police Custody

The victim and a 23-year-old Moroccan young man had been arrested for an alleged attempted car theft in the tourist district of Porta Venezia. The events took place on Sunday, August 23 around noon. The 43-year-old Maghrebi man was alone in a waiting room at the Milan police station where he was to be questioned along with the young Moroccan. The officer who enters the said room to take him to the identification and reporting office discovers the lifeless body of the accused.

According to the Milan police station, the deceased is of Algerian nationality, which remains to be proven. Why? "We did it based on the statements the arrested person provided us at the time of the arrest. Moreover, the post-mortem fingerprints taken from the body allowed us to discover that the deceased had already been arrested about ten times for drug offenses and property crimes. Each time, the man had given a different (false) name, claiming to be Algerian," a source at the Milan police station told Le Soir d’Algérie.

But the deceased may be of Moroccan nationality. Especially since some Moroccans claim to be of Algerian nationality to avoid extradition. "This is a human being who died under conditions that the Italian justice system will elucidate, and his presumed Algerian nationality will have to be established. Because if he turns out to be Algerian, our legal services will follow the investigation that the Italian authorities are conducting," assures the Algerian Consul General in Milan, Ali Redjal.