Deputy PM on trial

Open arms, Musk: absurd that Salvini is on trial for defending Italy

The League leader will be in court in Palermo. In case of conviction he has already announced that he will not resign

by Redaction Rome

19 December 2024

Cosa e' successo alla nave di Open Arms e che rischia Salvini

4' min read

Key points

Musk: absurd Salvini is on trial for defending Italy
The arm wrestling
Landing of minors
Imputation

4' min read

Matteo Salvini has let it be known that tomorrow,Friday 20 December, he will be in the courtroom of Palermo's Pagliarelli prison for the final hearing on the Open arms trial ahead of the sentencing. The deputy prime minister and leader of the League is accused of kidnapping and refusing to perform acts of office for preventing the disembarkation in Lampedusa of 147 migrants rescued by the Spanish NGO Open Arms and left at sea 19 days, in August 2019 when he was interior minister in Giuseppe Conte's first government. For him, the prosecutor asked for six years in prison. In addition to Salvini's criminal conviction, the lawyers of some of the shipwrecked people also asked for damages for their clients totalling more than one million euros. Lawyer and Lega League senator Giulia Bongiorno who is assisting Salvini in his defence plea asked for the acquittal of the deputy prime minister whose choice was to "protect the borders of the state". Salvini has already said he will not resign if convicted. 'I only defended the nation'.

Musk: absurd for Salvini to be tried for defending Italy

"It is absurd that Salvini is being tried for defending Italy". Elon Musk writes this on X in reference to the Open Arms trial of Matteo Salvini.

The arm wrestling

The story begins on 1 August 2019, with the rescue of 124 migrants in Libyan Sar waters by the Spanish NGO Open Arms. After the rescue, the crew of the boat requests the allocation of a safe harbour to Italy and Malta: it is the first of a series of instances to this effect but, as a response, they receive a ban on entry into Italian waters from the then Minister of the Interior Salvini who moves in agreement with his 5 Star colleagues in Defence and Transport. The tug-of-war with Open Arms begins. Two refugees and a member of their family, meanwhile, are disembarked for health reasons. A total of 121 remain on the ship. On 9 August, the NGO's lawyers appealed to the juvenile court requesting the disembarkation of the migrants who had not yet reached the age of majority and filed their first complaint. A few hours later they rescue another group of people on a stranded wood: this time there are 39 of them.

The landing of minors

On 12 August, the court in Palermo ordered the disembarkation of the minors. In the meantime, the ship sailed towards Lampedusa and continued to ask Malta and Italy for a safe port. Against the Viminale's repeated refusal, the NGO appealed to the Lazio Tar. On the eve of mid-August, the president of the board suspended the entry ban. Two days later, when the yellow-green government began to crumble, Open Arms filed a complaint with the Agrigento Public Prosecutor's Office claiming that, in spite of the administrative judge's decision, Salvini continued to deny entry into Italian waters. In the meantime, the situation on board is unmanageable: the migrants, who have been in precarious sanitary conditions for a good 18 days, are at the end of their tether. Some, seeing the Italian coast, try to swim to Lampedusa by throwing themselves into the sea. Open Arms is again calling for disembarkation.

L’imputazione

On 20 August, when tensions were at an all-time high, the then Agrigento prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio boarded the ship to ascertain the physical and psychological conditions of the migrants. It was he who spoke of 'an explosive situation' and seized the boat, breaking the stalemate. On board, out of the initial 164 rescued in Libyan Sar waters, after transfers for medical reasons, 88 remained. The Agrigento public prosecutor's office launched investigations. The outcome of the investigations and the identification of responsibility in Minister Salvini led to the inclusion in the register of suspects of the Lega Nord leader for kidnapping and refusal to carry out official acts in conspiracy with his chief of staff Matteo Piantedosi. For competence, the papers were forwarded to the Palermo prosecutor's office - the capital is the seat of the Court of Ministers - which then formulated the indictment for Salvini while filing for Piantedosi.

A trial of 24 hearings

On 1 February 2020, the college sends the acts to the Senate for authorisation to proceed. Palazzo Madama, unlike what happened in the twin case of the navy ship Diciotti, which was also prevented from disembarking, says yes this time. On 17 April 2021, the gup Lorenzo Jannelli ordered the indictment. On 15 September 2021, the trial begins. A trial that went on for more than three years and 24 hearings, during which former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, former Foreign Minister Giuseppe Di Maio and current Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, among others, testified.

Salvini's defence and the prosecution's request

"The government's policy was to combat human trafficking and to involve Europe," Salvini told the judges during lengthy spontaneous statements. The League leader repeatedly returns to the total agreement by the majority on the management of migratory phenomena, recalling that Conte had changed his position on the matter only in mid-August, at the height of the government crisis. On 14 September, the Public Prosecutor's Office is asking for Salvini to be sentenced to six years in prison for 'the intentional and conscious disregard of the rules and conscious and voluntary denial of the personal freedom of 147 people', say prosecutors Gery Ferrara, Giorgia Righi and deputy Marzia Sabella.