Salvini could face 6 years in prison for preventing the disembarkation of 147 migrants from Open Arms

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian city of Palermo (south) has claimed this Saturday 6 years in prison for the far right Matteo Salvini for having blocked the ship of the NGO Open Arms with 147 immigrants in August 2019 when he was Minister of the Interior, as part of his policies against irregular immigration.

The prosecutor Marzia Sabella has requested this 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 without any understandable reason.”

Salvini, current vice president of the Government of Giorgia Meloni and Minister of Infrastructuredid not appear before the Palermo Court despite the importance of the hearing in this trial in which he is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and abuse of power.

Chronology of a pulse

The events date back to August 2019when Salvini, then Minister of the Interior, prevented for twenty days the disembarkation of the rescue ship of the Spanish organization Open Arms with 147 immigrants on board saved in the Mediterranean, as part of his strict policy of closed ports.

The situation on board the ship became critical, with dozens of immigrants waiting under the sun, including minors, injured people and people who “They drank sea water“or 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 coasts of the Italian island of Lampedusa (south).

Six days later, the prosecutor of Agrigento (south), Luigi Patronaggio, went on board to check on the situation of its occupants and ordered their disembarkation and the confiscation of the ship.

That evening the Open Arms ship docked at the port of Lampedusa to finally disembark 83 immigrantsas the rest had been previously evacuated for medical reasons.

This is how Salvini’s first fight with the NGO ended. then start the battle in courtwhen in July 2020 the Senate voted in favor of allowing the process given that the minister had immunity.

In recent months, Salvini has claimed that his intention was to protect the borders and force a distribution of immigrants in Europe and has assured that his policies were “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 thesis

Another of the Palermo prosecutors, Colagero Ferrara, said in his speech that this trial “has nothing political” but is only trying to judge “administrative acts.”

He also explained that since Salvini took office as Interior Minister in June 2018, decisions on landings were passed directly to his cabinet: “It was the minister who decided, this is a key element,” he said.

In any case, he pointed out that respect for those rescued at sea must be paramount. “According to international conventions, criminals and terrorists, whether real or suspected, cannot be abandoned at sea either. They must be saved“, he said.

“There is a key and undebatable principle: between Human Rights and the protection of State sovereignty, in our legal system the former must prevail,” he said.

His colleague Sabella also found it “legitimately understandable” that Open Arms refused to go to the port offered by Spain, Algeciras (south), on 18 August, because it was too far away when it was already near Lampedusa, the nearest port according to maritime law.

“Revenge of the Left”

The far-right politician has not attended the hearing in Palermo but he spoke about the subject in an interview in the newspaper I freeblaming the trial on “revenge from the left.”

“I face up to 15 years in prison “for having kept the word given to the 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, who did attend the hearing, described the position of the Prosecutor’s Office as “a little contradictory” because she saw in it “a political line“, he said during a media break.

The lawyer, who at the time of the events was Minister for Public Administration, will deliver his closing statement on October 18 and then the sentence is expected in the first degree.

While, The Leagueone of the three parties in the coalition of Melonihas organised protests during the last two weekends of September and a demonstration on 6 October in its stronghold, the town of Pontida (north).