(Palermo) The trial of far-right Italian leader Matteo Salvini, accused of illegally stranding 147 migrants at sea in 2019 when he was interior minister, started on Saturday in Palermo, Sicily.
The hearing, which Mr. Salvini attends, takes place as 406 migrants, rescued during several operations off Libya by the German ship Sea Watch 3 of the NGO Sea Watch, arrived in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo to disembark, according to the Italian agency AGI.
The trial opened on September 15, but was immediately postponed. Saturday’s hearing is expected to be largely procedural, with Judge Roberto Murgia having to decide on the admissibility of the witnesses presented.
Matteo Salvini, 48, is the leader of La Ligue, a far-right anti-migrant party that belongs to the current ruling coalition led by Mario Draghi.
Mr. Salvini is accused of kidnapping people and abuse of power for having prohibited the disembarkation of 147 migrants rescued at sea by the NGO Open Arms in August 2019.
REUTERS ARCHIVE PHOTO
The Sea Watch 3 vessel of the NGO Sea Watch
He had refused for six days to grant a safe port to the ship of the Spanish NGO which anchored off the small Italian island of Lampedusa (south of Sicily) as conditions on board worsened.
The migrants were only allowed to disembark thanks to an order issued by the Sicilian justice after an on-board inspection which had confirmed the seriousness of the health situation on the overcrowded ship.
Known for his controversial statements, especially on immigration, Mr. Salvini was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior in the first government of Giuseppe Conte, from June 2018 to September 2019.
He claims to have acted for the good of Italy and to dissuade migrants from embarking on African coasts for a dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean, stressing that the decision had been validated by the government of the time and Mr. Conte .
The prosecution requested that Mr. Conte be on the witness list, as well as Luciana Lamorgese and Luigi Di Maio, currently respectively ministers of the interior and foreign affairs.
“This is the Palermo prison court,” Mr. Salvini tweeted from the courtroom with a photo of himself standing in front of a cell reserved for certain defendants. “The trial wanted by the left and the supporters of illegal immigration begins: how much will it cost Italian citizens? “.
In court, Open Arms founder and director Oscar Camps assured reporters that the trial was not politically motivated.
“Saving people is not a crime, but an obligation, not only for the captains, but for the entire state,” said Mr. Camps.
Twenty-three civil parties, including nine migrants who were on board, are represented at the trial.
The Senate voted last year to lift his parliamentary immunity, paving the way for the trial of Mr. Salvini.
In another similar case, the court of Catania, also in Sicily, had ordered the abandonment of the proceedings against Mr. Salvini, implicated for having blocked at sea a hundred migrants rescued by the ship “Gregoretti” of the coast guard. Italians, still during the summer of 2019.