Selmi Faiez, a 38-year-old Tunisian national wanted since December 2024 for domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend Tania Bellinetti, has been arrested in Rennes, France, by Interpol’s FAST/SIRENE team. Bellinetti, 47, died after falling from the third-floor balcony of her home on Via Tolstoj in Bologna on April 8.
The Bologna Prosecutor’s Office had initially opened an investigation into Bellinetti’s death on suspicion of abetting suicide, naming Faiez as a suspect. He was already subject to a final conviction for prior domestic abuse offenses against her. This morning’s arrest around 10 a.m. was facilitated by information shared by Bologna’s Mobile Squad. Faiez was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Bologna preliminary investigations judge at the request of the Republic Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutor Marco Forte is handling the case.
Bologna’s Mobile Squad had been searching for Faiez since before Bellinetti’s death, following her domestic abuse complaint. A restraining order issued against him could not be enforced as he had made himself unreachable since late last year.
The investigation into Bellinetti’s death subsequently located Faiez in Rennes and identified several Tunisian nationals in France who may have harboured him. Based on this intelligence, French authorities tracked and arrested him. Extradition proceedings will now commence.
Meanwhile, Mobile Squad investigators executed a search warrant at the Bologna home of a local woman. Investigations indicate that on April 8, immediately after Bellinetti’s fall, Faiez was driven from the Barca district—where both he and Bellinetti resided and where he was present that day—to France via the Ventimiglia border crossing, arriving on the night of April 9.
Faiez is currently under investigation for abetting suicide and domestic abuse, but charges may soon be upgraded to murder.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA