Italian court set to issue verdict in Salvini’s kidnapping trial over migrants blocked at sea
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2024 (355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ROME (AP) — A court in Sicily is expected to announce its verdict Friday on whether Italy’s vice premier, Matteo Salvini, was guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister.
Salvini faces up to six years in jail if convicted on charges of kidnapping for the 2019 incident when he refused to allow the migrants to leave the Open Arms rescue ship at Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa.
A sentence of over five years would also automatically bar him from office. However, verdicts in Italy are only considered final once all appeals are exhausted, a process that can take years. Salvini has made clear he will not step down.
Now transport minister in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government, Salvini has defended himself, saying he acted to protect Italy’s borders.
During the standoff, some of the migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a safe, close port. The remaining 89 people onboard were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa by a court order.
Salvini took a hard line against migration as interior minister from 2018-2019 in the first government of former Premier Giuseppe Conte. He refused humanitarian rescue ships port and accused the groups that rescued migrants at sea of effectively encouraging smugglers.
Salvini has the support of Meloni, other government ministers and anti-migrant European lawmakers, as well as Elon Musk, who expressed his support in a message on the social media platform X.
Since she took power in 2022, Meloni has moved to crack down on migration, striking deals with northern African nations to prevent departures while also setting up centers in Albania aimed at vetting migrants rescued at sea in the non-EU country without allowing them to enter Italy. Those centers are not yet operational amid legal challenges.
