Prosecutors want six-year jail term for Italy’s deputy PM over blockade of migrant ship
Italian prosecutors have requested a six-year prison sentence for Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, for prohibiting rescued migrants from disembarking in an Italian port.
During closing arguments in Palermo, prosecutors argued that Mr Salvini was trying to promote and position himself during a political crisis when he knowingly broke Italian law and international conventions by blocking the migrants from landing.
“Six years in prison for having blocked arrivals and defended Italy and Italians? It is madness,” responded Mr Salvini, who was not present in court. “Defending Italy is not a crime.”
The 147 migrants, including 32 minors, had been rescued from rubber dinghies crossing the Mediterranean from Libya by a ship operated by Open Arms, the Spanish non-profit human rights organisation.
As interior minister at the time, Mr Salvini refused to assign a port of safety for the migrants to disembark, even when asked by Giuseppe Conte, then prime minister, whose Five-Star Movement was in a coalition with Mr Salvini’s League party.
Prosecutors ordered the ship’s seizure and evacuation, and later charged Mr Salvini with kidnapping and refusal to execute acts of office. The first trial of a three-stage judicial process is expected to finish this year.
The high-profile 2019 incident off the island of Lampedusa drew international criticism. Richard Gere, Hollywood actor, broke off his Tuscan holiday to fly to Sicily and be ferried out to the ship, where he distributed aid and spoke with traumatised refugees.
Mr Gere later offered to testify about the scene on board, with migrants’ physical and mental well-being becoming critical as sanitary conditions deteriorated, including an outbreak of scabies.
“Between human rights and the protection of state sovereignty, it is human rights that must prevail in our fortunately democratic system,” Geri Ferrara, prosecutor, said in his summing up.
Marine Le Pen, French Right-wing leader and Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive, offered support on social media for Mr Salvini, now infrastructure minister in Giorgia Meloni’s Right-wing coalition government.
Ms Meloni also criticised prosecutors, calling it “incredible that a minister of the Italian Republic risks six years in prison for doing his job defending the nation’s borders”.
Ms Meloni is scheduled for talks in Rome on Monday with Sir Keir Starmer, who has expressed interest in learning how the Italian government has tackled illegal immigration through financial deals with northern African nations and an asylum processing scheme offshore in Albania.