Italy’s Salvini To Stand Trial for 2019 Migrant Standoff

A judge in Sicily on Saturday began weighing whether to put
former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on trial for having refused
to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in
2019, keeping the people at sea for days.

Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, was on hand for
the preliminary hearing in the bunker courtroom of the Palermo
tribunal. He tweeted that he was certain he did the right thing
under Italian law, “defending the security and dignity of Italy” by
refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship.

The judge for the preliminary hearing, Lorenzo Iannelli, is
deciding whether to put Salvini on trial or archive the case.

Palermo prosecutors have accused Salvini of kidnapping, for
having kept the migrants at sea off the coast of Lampedusa for days
in August 2019. During the standoff, some of the migrants threw
themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a
safe, close port. Eventually after a 19-day ordeal, the remaining
83 migrants on board were allowed to disembark in Lampedusa.

Salvini had maintained a hard line on migration as interior
minister during the first government of Premier Giuseppe Conte,
from 2018-2019. While demanding European Union nations do more to
take in migrants arriving in
Italy, Salvini argued that humanitarian rescue ships were only
encouraging Libyan-based traffickers and that his policy actually
saved lives by discouraging the risky trips across the
Mediterranean.

Salvini is also under investigation for another, similar migrant
standoff involving the Italian coast guard ship Gregoretti that
Salvini refused to let dock in the summer of 2019.

The prosecutor in that case, Catania, Sicily Prosecutor Andrea
Bonomo, recommended last week that Salvini not be put on trial,
arguing that he was carrying out government policy when he kept the
116 migrants at sea for five days.

A judge in Sicily on Saturday began weighing whether to put
former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on trial for having refused
to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in
2019, keeping the people at sea for days.

Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, was on hand for
the preliminary hearing in the bunker courtroom of the Palermo
tribunal. He tweeted that he was certain he did the right thing
under Italian law, “defending the security and dignity of Italy” by
refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship.

The judge for the preliminary hearing, Lorenzo Iannelli, is
deciding whether to put Salvini on trial or archive the case.

Palermo prosecutors have accused Salvini of kidnapping, for
having kept the migrants at sea off the coast of Lampedusa for days
in August 2019. During the standoff, some of the migrants threw
themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a
safe, close port. Eventually after a 19-day ordeal, the remaining
83 migrants on board were allowed to disembark in Lampedusa.

Salvini had maintained a hard line on migration as interior
minister during the first government of Premier Giuseppe Conte,
from 2018-2019. While demanding European Union nations do more to
take in migrants arriving in
Italy, Salvini argued that humanitarian rescue ships were only
encouraging Libyan-based traffickers and that his policy actually
saved lives by discouraging the risky trips across the
Mediterranean.

Salvini is also under investigation for another, similar migrant
standoff involving the Italian coast guard ship Gregoretti that
Salvini refused to let dock in the summer of 2019.

The prosecutor in that case, Catania, Sicily Prosecutor Andrea
Bonomo, recommended last week that Salvini not be put on trial,
arguing that he was carrying out government policy when he kept the
116 migrants at sea for five days.