I finally strongarm Italian suspect into sucking a dummy (9)

I believe the answer is:

imitation

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'dummy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'i finally strongarm italian suspect into' is the wordplay.
'finally' indicates one should take the final letters.
'italian' becomes 'ita' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'suspect' indicates an anagram (a suspicious or unusual spelling).
The final letter of 'strongarm' is 'm'.
'into' anagrammed gives 'tion'.
'i'+'m'+'ita'+'tion'='IMITATION'

'sucking a' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for imitation that I've seen before include "Bogus" , "Simulated" , "Artificial" , "A copy of an authentic item" , "False" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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