In a trial about the treatment of migrants in the Mediterranean, the public prosecutor’s office has demanded a six-year prison sentence for Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. The leader of the right-wing ruling party Lega is accused of having prevented a ship belonging to a Spanish aid organization from entering a port for weeks during his time as Interior Minister in 2019. The prosecution considered this in court in Palermo as deprivation of liberty and abuse of office. The verdict against the current Transport Minister is expected to be announced next month.
With its demand, the public prosecutor’s office remained well below the maximum possible sentence of 15 years. Salvini was not in the courtroom on Saturday after the trial had already been going on for three years. On his Instagram account he wrote: “I would do everything the same again.” The right-wing politician was interior minister from 2018/19. At that time he made an international name for himself by cracking down on the ships of private aid organizations that take refugees on board from boats in the Mediterranean. Today he is one of the central figures in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing three-party coalition.
Meloni assures Salvini of “total solidarity”
According to the aid organization of the same name, the ship called “Open Arms” rescued more than 160 people from distress at sea in August 2019. It then lay off the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, but was not allowed to dock in the port there. The situation on board escalated. People jumped into the water several times and tried to swim to shore. The public prosecutor’s office finally had the “Open Arms” confiscated after three weeks so that the ship could dock.
Meloni defended her coalition partner. “It is unbelievable that a minister of the Italian Republic risks six years in prison for carrying out his duty to defend the nation’s borders, as required by the citizens’ mandate,” wrote the leader of the right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy). At the same time, she assured Salvini of her “total solidarity.” The other coalition partner Forza Italia also supported the minister.
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