Italian prosecutors on Saturday called for a six-year prison sentence for Matteo Salvini, Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister, for preventing migrants from disembarking at one of the country’s ports in 2019.
Salvini, a coalition partner of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is on trial for alleged deprivation of liberty and abuse of power for holding 147 migrants at sea for weeks on a ship run by the charity Open Arms.
“The prosecution has requested a six-year prison sentence for former Interior Minister Salvini,” Open Arms lawyer Arturo Salerni told AFP, as the “long and difficult trial” draws to a close.
The verdict in the trial, which began in October 2021, could be delivered next month, he added. Salvini would be free to appeal any decision.
Salvini was not present, but he said on Facebook: “Six years in prison for blocking arrivals and defending Italy and the Italians? Madness. Defending Italy is not a crime.”
Meloni also criticized prosecutors.
“It is unbelievable that a minister of the Italian Republic risks 6 years in prison for having done his job of defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate received from its citizens,” the Prime Minister wrote on X.
In summary, prosecutor Geri Ferrara told the court in Palermo, Sicily, that there was “a key principle that is not debatable.”
“Between human rights and the protection of state sovereignty, it is human rights that must prevail in our fortunately democratic system,” he said.
The ship remained stuck at sea for almost three weeks before the migrants were finally allowed to disembark on the island of Lampedusa following a court ruling.
Open Arms members testified that the migrants’ physical and mental well-being reached a critical point as sanitary conditions on board became dire, including an outbreak of scabies.
– ‘Chaos’ –
Salvini, leader of the anti-immigration League party and interior minister at the time, testified in January that he understood that “the situation was not in danger” on board the ship.
“The POS (safe harbor) should have been provided immediately and without delay,” prosecutor Marzia Sabella said on Saturday, according to Italian media.
“Refusing to do so was tantamount to breaking the rules, to not being in line with a government plan,” and Salvini’s “choices” had given rise to “chaos,” she said.
A populist known for his “Italy first” policy, Salvini has repeatedly used attacks on illegal immigration to boost his political capital.
In 2019, under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, he implemented a “closed ports” policy under which Italy refused entry to charity ships rescuing migrants stranded crossing the Mediterranean.
He presented the measure as a tough crackdown on traffickers operating boats between North Africa, Italy and Malta, the world’s deadliest migrant crossing.
Much of the trial was devoted to determining whether decision-making and responsibility in this case lay with the Conte government or with Salvini alone.
Salvini has already faced a similar trial, accused of refusing to let 116 migrants disembark from an Italian coastguard boat in July 2019. But the trial was dismissed by a court in Catania in 2021.
bur-ide/imm
