The man who is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition is on trial for deprivation of liberty and abuse of power, for having kept 147 migrants at sea for weeks on a ship run by the charity Open Arms.
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Italian prosecutors on Saturday, September 14, requested a six-year prison sentence for Matteo Salvini, Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister, for preventing migrants from disembarking at an Italian port in 2019.
Matteo Salvini, who is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition, is on trial for deprivation of liberty and abuse of power for keeping 147 migrants at sea for weeks on a ship run by the charity Open Arms.
“The prosecution has requested that former Interior Minister Salvini be sentenced to six years in prison”Open Arms lawyer Arturo Salerni told AFP as the proceedings drew to a close. The verdict in the trial, which began in October 2021, is expected next month, he added.
The accused was not present at the hearing. He had previously posted on Facebook: “II would do it again if I had to: defending the borders against illegal migrants is not a crime”. “It is incredible that a minister of the Republic risks six years in prison for having done his job in defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate he received from his fellow citizens,” he added on X.
When summarizing his indictment, prosecutor Geri Ferrara of the Palermo court said: “that a key principle is not debatable: between human rights and the protection of state sovereignty, human rights must prevail in our fortunately democratic system”.
The ship remained stuck at sea for almost three weeks before the migrants were finally allowed by the courts to disembark on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Open Arms members had assured that the physical and mental state of the migrants had reached a critical point when the sanitary conditions on board had become disastrous, notably due to an outbreak of scabies.