This Saturday begins the trial against the former Italian Interior Minister and leader of the far-right party La Liga
The former Italian Interior Minister and leader of the far-right party La Liga, Matteo Salvini, will appear today before a court in Palermo (Sicily) to answer the accusations of deprivation of liberty and abuse of authority by preventing the landing of the rescue ship in 2019 Spanish ‘Open Arms’.
Salvini faces a maximum of 15 years in prison for declaring this ban, one of the high points in his fight against the migratory wave, during a trial in which the role played by the then government adviser and now minister will also be discussed. of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, and the then Minister of Labor and Social Policies, now Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio.
According to information provided at the time by the NGO Open Arms, the rescue ship headed to Sicily in August 2019 with more than 160 migrants rescued in three operations as part of its 65th rescue trip.
The ship arrived in Lampedusa in mid-August but was not allowed to disembark despite the critical humanitarian situation of the migrants it was carrying. In the end, the Prosecutor’s Office decided to appropriate the ship to allow the docking. By then there were 147 migrants left on the ship; the rest had been disembarked urgently to receive medical attention.
Salvini, according to the statement of objections collected by ‘La Repubblica’, “had caused the illegitimate deprivation of personal liberty of the aforementioned migrants, forcing them to stay on board the ship for a legally appreciable time, precisely from the night between 14 and from August 15, 2019 to August 18, 2019 »
“Aggravated fact”, continues the accusation, “for having been committed by a public official, with abuse of the powers inherent to his functions, as well as for having been committed even to the detriment of minors”, referring to rescued young people who were on the ship.
It was the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior, “as the national public security authority”, to assign the “safe harbor” to the ship, hence the accusation to Salvini, whom the court considers an “undisputed protagonist” given that the then Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, urged the disembarkation of the minors.
Salvini has assured all this time that he acted in defense of Italy and the interests of the Government, and defended himself saying that there was a risk of landing smugglers, who had hidden among the migrants. The court has rejected this version of events. “In none of the accesses on board by the Italian authorities did the migrants ever show any indication of dangerous, specific, concrete and objective conditions,” according to the court.
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