THE Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian City of Palermo asked for Matteo Salvininumber 2 of Georgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister, six years in prison this Saturday for blocking the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms of the podemite Òscar Camps with 147 immigrants in August 2019 while he was Minister of the Interior, as part of his anti-immigration policy. Prosecutor Marzia Sabella requested this sentence after a long debate before the court of Palermo, stressing among other things in her conclusions that “conscious rejection” of this ship “The freedom of 147 people has been violated” immigrants “for no understandable reason.” Matteo Salvini, currently vice-president of Giorgia Meloni’s government and Minister of Infrastructure, He did not attend the hearing of this trial in which he is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and abuse of power.The trial was possible after the Senate voted to authorize it in July 2020, given that the politician enjoyed parliamentary immunity. The first degree sentence is expected in mid-October..
Faced with Italy’s refusal to allow disembarkation in its ports, Oscar Camps decided to defy Salvini: he remained off the Italian coast for 20 days, while 64 of the illegal immigrants had to be rescued for medical reasons. On August 20, 2019, Justice The Italian intervened to finally allow the ship to reach the port of the Italian island of Lampedusa. So, They disembarked the 83 immigrants who remained on board, the others having had to be evacuated for medical reasons.
Defense attorney Giulia Bongiorno stressed in court that the prosecutor’s argument is “a bit contradictory“, considering that he imputes “a political line”, according to prosecutor Gil Ferrara. The aforementioned prosecutor explained that when Salvini was appointed minister, in June 2018, “Decisions on landings were transferred to his office from the Ministry of Civil Liberties and Immigration“.
Throughout the process, Salvini has stressed that his intention is to defend Italy’s borders and force a distribution of immigrants in Europe and assured that his policy was “shared” by the rest of the government, a coalition between his League and the 5 Star Movement chaired by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
