A 43-year-old Moroccan street vendor has become an Italian citizen, with his extraordinary merits being recognised by the government after having saved a female hospital doctor when she was attacked by a man in Calabria four years ago.
The street seller, Mustapha El Aoudi, was at his stall near the hospital in Crotone when he heard a woman crying for help on December 4, 2018.
The doctor, Maria Carmela Calindro, was on the floor while a man, Luigi Amoruso, later convicted of attempted murder, was attacking her with a screwdriver in a row over his treatment.
El Aoudi immediately left his stall and came to Calindro’s aid, disarming Amoruso.
He was later knighted by President Sergio Mattarella, and on Thursday evening, Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet recognized his special merits and conferred citizenship on him.
“It was my dream to become Italian,” said El Aoudi with tears in his eyes, proudly waving an Italian flag.
“This is my country; I’ve lived here since I was 10. And now my dream has come true.”
