A court suspends the trial against Salvini for defamation and asks the Italian Senate to examine the case

ROME, June 23 (DPA/EP) –

A court in Milan has decided this Thursday to suspend the case against former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for defamation and has asked the Senate to examine whether those statements in which he referred to as “criminal” and “rich and pampered communist” can be challenged. to the captain of the ‘Sea Watch 3’, Carola Rackete, during the 2019 Lampedusa migration crisis.

Salvini, leader of the far-right Northern League party and Minister of the Interior between June 2018 and September 2019, used his social networks to attack the reputation of Rackete, whom he accused of playing “politics” with the lives of human beings. She recently questioned that it was he and not her who went to trial.

For her part, Rackete has said she is disappointed with the court’s decision, but hopes that it can continue after “people who hold important political positions” assume “their responsibility,” according to statements made to the DPA news agency.

The decision of the Milan court to involve the Senate in the case is based on the fact that Salvini has been a member of the Chamber since 2018, thus following the argument used by the defense of the far-right politician, who claims to have spoken at that occasion as a senator.

However, for Rackete’s lawyer, Alessandro Gamberini, those comments had nothing to do with Salvini’s role as senator and he has expressed “profound disapproval” of the court’s ruling.

Rackete became known internationally after the decision to dock on the island of Lampedusa on June 29, 2109 the ship ‘Sea Watch 3’ with which he had rescued fifty people who were adrift two weeks earlier , despite the refusal of the Italian authorities.

For this reason, she was arrested for a few hours, although she was later acquitted of all charges, although that did not prevent Salvini, whose anti-immigration policies established penalties of up to one million for NGOs that rescued people, between June and July of that year. in the Mediterranean, he would dedicate all kinds of diatribes to him.