The Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian city of Palermo has asked for Matteo Salvininumber 2 of Georgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, six years in prison this Saturday for having blocked the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms of the podemite Òscar Camps with 147 immigrants in August 2019 when he was Minister of the Interior, within the framework of his anti-immigration policies. The prosecutor Marzia Sabella has demanded this sentence after a long argument before the Court of Palermo, pointing out in her conclusions, among other things, that “conscious rejection» from that ship “The freedom of 147 people was harmed” immigrants “without an understandable reason.” Matteo Salvini, currently vice president of the Government of Giorgia Meloni and Minister of Infrastructure, He has not attended the hearing of this process in which he is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and abuse of power.. This trial has been possible after the Senate voted in July 2020 to allow it, given that the politician had parliamentary immunity. The first degree sentence is expected in mid-October.
Given Italy’s refusal to allow disembarkation in its ports, Òscar Camps decided to challenge Salvini: he was off the Italian coast for 20 days, while 64 of the illegal immigrants had to be rescued for medical reasons. On August 20, 2019, Justice Italian intervened to finally allow the ship access to the port of the Italian island of Lampedusa. So, They disembarked the 83 immigrants remaining on board, after the rest had had to be evacuated for medical reasons.
The defense lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, has highlighted in court that the Prosecutor’s argument is “a little contradictory», considering that he is imputing «a political line», in response to prosecutor Gil Ferrara. The aforementioned prosecutor has explained that when Salvini was appointed minister, in June 2018, “decisions on landings were transferred to his cabinet from the Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration».
Throughout the process Salvini has stressed that his intention was to defend the Italian borders and force a distribution of immigrants in Europe and has assured that his policies were “shared” by the rest of the Government, a coalition between his League and the 5 Star Movement chaired by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
