…“We saw Emmanuel being beaten by Policemen”

Three Italian women have all jumped to the defence of the Ghanaian in Italy, who claimed he was severely beaten by the Italian Municipal Police.

The story which broke out on September 30, a day after the incident, and is gathering increasing media attention said Emmanuel Bonsu Foster, a 22-year-old Ghanaian student resident in Parma, Italy, claimed he was brutally assaulted by six Italian Municipal policemen who suspected him to be a ‘drug pusher’ whilst he was taking off some time at a park before going for an evening studies at his school, close to the park.

The incident left him nursing a swollen face and an almost closed bloody left eye. The police have denied his story insisting he fell down during a chase and injured himself in the process at the time of arrest.

In their testimonies on a special televised program on Italy’s national station Rai 3, two of the women who spoke openly on camera and the third through a telephone call all said they saw Emmanuel arrested by Municipal policemen and put on the ground and they went on beating him. All three were given the power of an attorney and interrogated before coming out with their story on the incident of the widely watched program - ‘Who saw it?’ - on which people who saw crimes being committed come out with their testimony.

The first to speak, Federica Sciarelli, said: “I saw the young man (Emmanuel) on the ground. He had a bicycle of which the police carried unto a vehicle. He was shouting in Italian: ‘Why are you taking away my bicycle?’ One of the policemen gave him a punch on his side and said: ‘Keep quite’.

The second woman giving her narration of what she saw on the day of the incident told viewers: “We were in the park talking, a place where we frequently go for the past 10 years but the young man (Emmanuel) we have not seen before, never. I was sitting somewhere in the middle of the park and saw him only when he began to run. The police, apart from one woman were all men and were initially sitting at another part of the park dressed in plain clothes. Later they started running after the young man (Emmanuel) who was wearing a black top. They forced him to the ground infront of the school and gave him a kick. He tried to get up but he was forced to the ground again and they attempted to beat him. They later took him away. We didn’t see anything again”, she pointed out.

Her testimony was not different from the third woman who spoke. Her name was given as Francesca Zera who recounted the scene like this: “On that day I saw three men, all in plain clothes, arrest the young man, Emmanuel. One of them had in his hand a pistol and together they put him on the ground and was handcuffed. I saw that he was given a kick, not a strong one but he was hit. Everything happened very fast. In the end I was scared. He was shouting and was taken away still handcuffed.”

One of the two lawyers on the case for the victim, Domenico Pietro, said the testimonies of the three women will help their case.

Emmanuel Bonsu who is recovering at the main hospital in Parma -‘Ospedale di Parma’- has been operated on his wounded left eye. Doctors performed a small incision below the eye to adjust his eye ball as he was having a double vision. They said the operation lasted a little over an hour and the exit was positive indicating the young Ghanaian student will be out of hospital within some few days.

The policemen alleged to have inflicted injuries on the Ghanaian student continue to maintain their innocence insisting they never harmed the victim. One of them speaking for the first time in a press interview noted they have conducted similar routine exercises and many others only that this time it’s been exaggerated in an incredible manner. He also mentioned it’s absurd they are being labelled as racists and beating people adding: “the word ‘racists’ would be the last word to be used on us as we have helped many immigrants in the course of our duty”. He pointed out on the day in question their objective was to identify and arrest ‘drug pushers’.

Did they arrest the wrong person? He responded: “The surveillance camera can establish that but nothing entered, probable because of the colour … there was nothing,” he repeated.

Under the development of the case it’s been reported one of the policemen involved is under investigation in a similar assault case before being engaged in the operation that arrested Emmanuel Bonsu.

It has also been learnt two of those policemen in the arrest of the Ghanaian student are now on a 20-day sick leave as a result of injuries they claimed to have sustained in the struggle with the victim during the arrest - one on his hand and the other on his leg. How a diminutive-size stature of Emmanuel outwitted those policemen and inflicted injuries on them is also another dimension of the story being debated. As the saga continues students from Emmanuel’s school in conjunction with one of the Trade Unions in the city Parma carried out demonstration march against racism in an event at which more than 400 people took part.