Open Arms: Palermo prosecutor appeals Salvini's acquittal. Meloni: "Surreal fury".

The Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office has filed an appeal with the Court of Cassation against the sentence that acquitted League leader Matteo Salvini of the crimes of kidnapping and refusal to carry out official acts for the Open Arms affair. This is the so-called 'appeal per saltum', which makes it possible to avoid the appeal judgement and directly obtain a ruling from the Supreme Court.

The vice-premier's retort followed closely. "Defending Italy and its borders is not a crime," League leader Salvini wrote on social media. "On Open Arms," he then added in a note, "there is no clash between politics and the judiciary, and in fact I thank the court in Palermo and I subscribe to all 268 pages that motivate my total acquittal, which came after dozens of hearings and years of in-depth investigations.

"It is surreal this doggedness, after a failed three-year trial - of a minister who wanted to enforce the law - concluded with a full acquittal," wrote son social media the premier Giorgia Meloni commenting on the appeal to the Supreme Court. "I wonder," she added, "what Italians think of all this energy and resources spent in this way, while thousands of honest citizens are waiting for justice.

"I am very sorry for this news, it has affected me deeply in respect of the judicial passages. I am sorry humanly and personally and also professionally, I lived through that season as Salvini's chief of staff. I feel even more involved and I claim the action that was taken to fight illegal immigration, which is not so different from mafias'. Thus the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, on the sidelines of the conference 'Parlate di Mafia'. 'I consider myself morally imputable as well,' he added.

"The Public Prosecutor's Office of Palermo has appealed to the Court of Cassation against the acquittal at first instance of Matteo Salvini, former Minister of the Interior, now Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, accused of refusal to perform acts of office and kidnapping to the detriment of the 147 shipwrecked people rescued by the Open Arms ship in August 2019. The facts have been amply reconstructed at first instance, we have full confidence in the work of the Public Prosecutor's Office'. Thus Oscar Camps, founder of the NGO Open Arms.