THE Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian City of Palermo (south) claimed this Saturday 6 years in prison for the extreme right Matteo Salvini for blocking the ship of the NGO Open Arms with 147 immigrants in August 2019 when he was Minister of the Interior, as part of his policy against irregular immigration.
Prosecutor Marzia Sabella demanded the sentence after a long argument, denouncing in her conclusions that the accused “He was aware of the illegitimacy of his actions“and that “the conscious rejection” of the ship”violated the freedom of 147 people for no understandable reason.
Salvini, current vice-president of the government of Giorgia Meloni And Minister of Infrastructuredid not address the court in Palermo despite the importance of the hearing of this trial in which he is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and abuse of power.
Timeline of an impulse
The events date back to August 2019when Salvini, then Interior Minister, prevented the landing of the rescue ship of the Spanish organisation Open Arms with 147 immigrants saved in the Mediterranean for twenty days, as part of his strict policy of closing ports.
The situation on board the ship has become critical, with dozens of immigrants waiting in the sun, including minors, the injured and people who “they drank sea water“either they threw themselves overboard in desperation, as the other deputy prosecutor, Giorgia Righi, recalled today.
On August 14, the Administrative Court of Lazio suspended the ban and the ship was able to enter Italian territorial waters, approaching the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa (south).
Six days later, the prosecutor of Agrigento (south), Luigi Patronaggio, came on board to check the situation of its occupants and ordered their disembarkation and the confiscation of the ship.
That day, during the night, the ship Open Arms docked at the port of Lampedusa to finally disembark 83 immigrantssince the others had been evacuated previously for medical reasons.
This is how Salvini’s first fight with the NGO ends. then the battle in court beginswhen in July 2020 the Senate voted to authorise the process given that the minister had immunity.
In recent months, Salvini has said his intention is to protect the borders and impose a distribution of immigrants in Europe and has assured that his policy is “shared” by the rest of the government, a coalition between his League and the 5 Star Movement chaired by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The prosecution’s case
Another Palermo prosecutor, Colagero Ferrara, argued in his speech that this trial “has nothing political” but aims only to judge “administrative acts”.
He also explained that since Salvini became interior minister in June 2018, decisions regarding landings have been transferred directly to his cabinet: “It was the minister who decided, that is a key element,” he said.
In any case, he stressed that respect for people rescued at sea must come first. “According to international conventions, criminals and terrorists, whether presumed or real, cannot be abandoned at sea either. We must save them” he said.
“There is a key and indisputable principle: between human rights and the protection of state sovereignty, in our system, the former must prevail,” he said.
His colleague Sabella also considered it “legitimately understandable” that Open Arms refused on August 18 to set up in the port proposed by Spain, Algeciras (south), because it was too far away while it was already in front of Lampedusa, the closest port according to the laws of the sea.
“The Revenge of the Left”
The far-right politician He did not attend the hearing in Palermo but he spoke about the subject in a newspaper interview I releaseattributing the trial to a “revenge of the left.”
“I face up to 15 years in prison for keeping my word to voters. I would do it again: defending the borders against illegal immigrants is not a crime. Go ahead, without fear,” he wrote on his social networks.
His lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, present at the hearing, described the prosecutor’s position as “a bit contradictory” because she saw it as “a political line” he said during a media break.
The lawyer, who at the time of the events was Minister of Public Administration, will deliver his final argument on October 18 and then the first degree penalty is expected.
While, the leagueone of the three parties in the coalition of Meloniorganized demonstrations on the last two weekends of September and a demonstration on October 6 in its stronghold, the town of Pontida (north).
