The prosecutor’s office in the Italian city of Palermo said this Saturday six years in prison for the extreme right Matteo Salvini to have Open Arms NGO ship blocked with 147 immigrants on board in 2019, when he was Minister of the Interior, as part of his anti-immigration policy.
Prosecutor Marzia Sabella requested the sentence after a long argument in which she denounced that the accused “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 Meloniand Minister of Infrastructure, did not go to court Despite the importance of the hearing of this trial, in which he is accused of the crimes of Kidnapping of persons and abuse of power.
The torture of the 147 survivors
The events date back to August 2019, when Salvini, then Interior Minister, prevented disembarkation for 20 days of the Spanish organisation Open Arms’ rescue ship with 147 migrants saved in the Mediterranean on board, as part of its strict port closure policy.
The situation on board became critical, with dozens of people waiting in the sun, including minors, injured people and people who “drank sea water” either They threw themselves overboard in despairas recalled by the deputy prosecutor, Giorgia Righi.
On 14 August, the Administrative Court of Lazio suspended the ban and the ship was allowed to enter Italian territorial waters, approaching the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. Six days later, the prosecutor of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, came aboard to check on the situation of the occupants and ordered them to disembark and confiscate the ship. That night, the ship docked at the port of Lampedusa and eventually disembarked 83 immigrants, the rest having been evacuatedpreviously for medical reasons.
This is how a first push by Salvini and the NGO ended and then began. court battlewhen in July 2020 the Senate voted to authorize the process given that the minister had immunity. In recent months, Salvini has claimed that his intention was to protect the borders and impose a distribution of migrants in Europe and that his policy was “shared” by the rest of the government, a coalition between his League and the 5 Star Movement chaired by the former prime minister. Giuseppe Conte.
The prosecution’s arguments
Another prosecutor from Palermo, Colagero Ferrara, said in his speech that This trial “has nothing political” but he is only trying to judge “administrative acts”. Similarly, he said that since Salvini took over as Interior Minister in June 2018, decisions regarding landings have been transferred directly to his cabinet: “It was the minister who decided“This 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. They must be saved,” they argued. “There is a key and indisputable principle: between the 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 had refused to set up in the port offered by Spain, Algecirasfor being too far away when he was already off Lampedusa, the closest port according to the laws of the sea.
Salvini assures that “he would do it again”
The far-right politician did not attend the hearing from Palermo, but he spoke about the matter in an interview with the newspaper ‘Libero’, attributing this 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.
Her lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, who was present at the hearing, described the position of the prosecution as “a bit contradictory” for having suggested “a political line” in statements to the media. The lawyer, who at the time of the events was Minister of Public Administration, will present her final plea on October 18 and the first degree conviction is then expected.
Meanwhile, the Leagueone of the three parties that make up Meloni’s government coalition, organized demonstrations the last two weekends of September and a demonstration on October 6 in their stronghold, the town of Pontida.
