Monday, Sep 16th 2024
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Italian prosecutors in Palermo have accused the then-interior minister of alleged kidnapping due to his decision to leave a migrant rescue ship operated by charity Open Arms stranded at sea for 19 days in 2019. Prosecutors in the Italian city of Palermo on Saturday asked for a six-year prison sentence for far-right Lega leader Matteo Salvini over his decision to prevent a ship carrying more than 100 migrants from landing in Lampedusa in 2019. A conviction, which in Italy is definitive only at the end of a three-stage judicial process, could see Salvini barred from holding government office. The Sicilian prosecutors have accused Salvini — who is currently deputy premier and transport minister in the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — of alleged kidnapping due to his decision to leave a migrant rescue ship operated by charity Open Arms stranded at sea for 19 days. At the time, Salvini served as interior minister in Giuseppe Conte's government. During his term in office, he imposed a "closed ports" policy under which Italy refused entry to charity ships that rescued migrants in distress across the Mediterranean and repeatedly accused humanitarian organisations of effectively encouraging people smuggling.
