A man was arrested on suspicion of killing Nigerian asylum seeker Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi on Thursday, as condemnation and tributes poured in from Italian officials.
The 36-year-old was beaten to death in a racist attack by a right-wing football hooligan in the central Italian town of Fermo, in Marche.
Amedeo Mancini, 35, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday morning.
Namdi was walking with his wife, Chinyery, on Via Veneto in Fermo on Tuesday night when they suffered racial abuse. The football hooligan allegedly called Chinyery, 24, a “monkey”.
That led to an altercation and Chidi was brutally beaten on the head, reportedly with a road-sign pole, until he fell to the ground.
The attack caused a brain hemorrhage that resulted in an irreversible coma. Namdi died on Wednesday.
The couple arrived in Italy last year after escaping an attack by the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram, at a church in Nigeria in which they each lost their parents and their daughter.
Chinyery also lost her baby after the perilous Mediterranean crossing.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took to Twitter to condemn “hatred, racism and violence”.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano attended a security meeting in Fermo on Thursday, after which he announced that Chinyery would be granted refugee status.
Laura Boldrini, president of the chamber of deputies, spoke of her “dismay” and “outrage” on hearing the news that “a man who escaped the ferocity of Boko Haram terrorists in his country was killed, here in Italy, because of hatred, racism and xenophobia”.
The couple had been living in the area for eight months and were lodged in a shelter run by Catholic charity Caritas. Chinyery has been moved to another centre.
AFP
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