Italian man arrested for beating to death Nigerian asylum seeker

Rome An Italian football hooligan has been arrested and charged with murder after beating to death a Nigerian asylum seeker who reacted to racial insults against his partner, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said on Thursday.

According to the La Repubblica newspaper, Emmanuel Chidi Nnamdi, 36, got into a fight on Tuesday after the man called his 24-year-old girlfriend Chinyere - referred to only by her first name - a "monkey."

Nnamdi was taken to hospital in a comatose state and declared dead on Wednesday in the central Italian town of Fermo, some 170 kilometres northeast of Rome, near the Adriatic coast.

The accused, Amedeo Mancini, is a supporter of 4th league team Fermana and had been banned from the local stadium because of his violent behaviour, ANSA news agency reported.

The incident led Alfano to travel to Fermo to chair a meeting with local police. Before the talks, he told reporters it was a "day of infinite sadness."

The minister later said Mancini's actions were racially motivated, an aggravating circumstance which could earn the accused a longer jail sentence, and that Chinyere's asylum demand had been accepted.

"She has been granted humanitarian protection status," Alfano said.

Italy's highest authorities also weighed in on the case.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on Twitter that the government was committed to fight "hatred, racism and violence," while President Sergio Mattarella delegated Fermo's authorities to offer Chinyere "any kind of required assistance."

"What happened is shocking and deeply disturbs the principle of international protection which, aside from the international obligation of states, should be rooted in everybody's conscience," UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) executive Stephane Jaquemet said in a statement.

Comunita di Capodarco, the Catholic charity that was giving shelter to the couple, issued a statement giving a version provided by Chinyere. She said the man put his hands on her, triggering Nnamdi's reaction.

"A fight broke out, a street sign was pulled from the pavement, there were heavy blows and one, probably fatal, hit the young Nigerian on the back of the neck. Once on the floor ... the young man was hit repeatedly," the Comunita said.

The couple left Nigeria to flee from the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, their hosts said.

Chinyere travelled while pregnant, but fell ill during the sea crossing to Sicily and lost her baby, probably as a result of beatings suffered in Libya, they added.

Father Vinicio Albanesi, who leads the community that sheltered the couple, said the people who attacked the asylum seekers were the same who earlier this year planted unexploded bombs in front of four Catholic churches in Fermo. Alfano said he could not confirm this.

DPA

Dozens arrested in European cyber crime sweep - Europol

AMSTERDAM Police have arrested 49 suspected members of a cyber crime syndicate in Spain, Poland and Italy who are suspected of stealing million of euros from European bank accounts, Europol said on Wednesday.

Police raided 58 locations as part of the investigation into online "phishing" scams used to transfer money from bank accounts across Europe, the Hague-based European police agency said in a statement.

Officials in Belgium and the United Kingdom assisted the investigation and operation, which was conducted on Tuesday.

"The parallel investigations revealed international fraud totalling 6 million euro accumulated within a very short time," the statement said.

The suspects, mainly from Nigeria and Cameroon, transferred the illicit profits outside of the European Union through a sophisticated network of money laundering transactions.

Reuters

Italy probes refugee sacrifice claim

Italy opened an inquiry on Wednesday into allegations by a refugee fleeing Libya that some people on the boat he arrived on threw other refugees into the sea as a human sacrifice during a storm.
The 16-year-old Ghanaian spoke to a volunteer from the charity Save the Children after arriving on the island of Lampedusa earlier this month and his disturbing allegations against a group of Nigerians were reported to police.
"As soon as we received the testimony we opened an investigation as required," the local chief prosecutor, Renato Di Natale, said.
Emanuela Salvatori from Save the Children, said: "We can confirm that we collected the testimony from this minor and that an investigation is underway."
"It was like a rite of sacrifice," La Stampa quoted him as saying, adding: "The captain pointed them out and the others threw them overboard."
The Ghanaian, who is now in a refugee centre in Italy, said his brother was one of the victims and also spoke of women being raped on the boat.
The news reports said other refugees had confirmed the Ghanaian's story.
Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya - almost all of them migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia - have been arriving in Italy in recent weeks as the conflict in North Africa has escalated.

Nigerians amongst hundreds of refugees just landed in Italy

A large contingent of 251 African refugees fleeing Libya arrived in Sicily on Tuesday- mostly Erireans and Nigerians; two three-year-old girls and 15 women, one of whom has had to be hospitalised with an abdominal injury,
while 116 more arrived in Malta on a boat that also carried the body of a 29-year-old woman who died during the voyage.
The refugees arriving Malta was carrying mostly Chadians and Somalis, the boat was intercepted by Maltese coast guards who received an alert from an Italian fishing boat that spotted the 50-foot (15-metre) wooden boat late Monday.
The refugees that arrived in Sicily which included Nigerians have been transferred to a temporary structure set up at Porto Empedocle in the south of the island.
A spokesman for the Maltese army said coast guards saw the refugees burning their clothes to attract the attention of passing vessels.
The refugees on the boat that arrived in Malta on Tuesday included 94 men, 18 women, a three-year-old boy and three babies. It has not yet been established how the woman on board died, the spokesman said.

Malta said it had asked Italian authorities to help with the rescue but was refused because they said the boat was 45 nautical miles from Malta and 47 nautical miles from the island of Lampedusa -- Italy's southernmost point.
Lampedusa last week refused to grant permission to enter its waters to a Maltese patrol boat which had rescued some migrants close to the island, which has been swamped with thousands of immigrants and refugees in recent weeks.
More than 1,000 people fleeing Libya have arrived in Malta in recent days.