The Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians abroad brought, this Friday, April 25, 2025, details concerning the death of Wissem Ben Abdellatif, a Tunisian citizen who died in 2021 at San Camillo Hospital in Rome, a case currently in Italian justice.
In a correspondence addressed to the Tunis Africa Press agency (TAP), the ministry said that Wissem Ben Abdellatif had arrived in Italy in October 2021. It was initially placed in a detention center in Palermo, before being transferred on October 13, 2021 to the San Camillo hospital in Rome, where he died.
Following this tragedy, the Tunisian consulate in Rome immediately mobilized in coordination with the local authorities. The substitute of the public prosecutor in Rome informed the consulate that the initial accusations of manslaughter and kidnapping targeting medical and paramedical staff had been classified.
On the other hand, a nurse was charged with unhappy homicide and falsification of documents, after administering an excessive dose of sedative to the deceased, then modified the data in the medical register.
Italian justice held a hearing on April 9, 2025, after which the judgment was pronounced on September 10, 2025.
The ministry also specified that the Tunisian consulate had provided active support to the family of the deceased, in particular for the repatriation of the body in Tunisia and for psychological and administrative support.
In its press release, Tunisian diplomacy has reaffirmed its commitment to the protection of the rights of Tunisians abroad. She assured intensify her efforts, in collaboration with diplomatic and consular representations, in order to ensure compliance with the rights of her nationals, in particular by multiplying visits to the centers of detention, reception and detention.
The ministry stressed that consular missions regularly organize meetings with the managers of these establishments, in order to closely follow the living conditions of Tunisian nationals, ensure their access to their fundamental rights and allow their communication with their loved ones.
In addition, the ministry firmly denied rumors circulating on social networks about a suicide attempt by a Tunisian citizen in an Italian detention center on April 3, 2025.
He also refuted the information reporting from the transfer of Tunisians in an irregular situation to reception centers in Albania, adding that the bilateral agreement in this sense was suspended by the Italian justice, which transmitted the file to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
