Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
A verdict is expected Friday in the trial of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, accused of kidnapping and dereliction of duty for refusing to allow a migrant rescue ship to dock in Italy in 2019.
Sicilian prosecutors have asked judges to sentence him to six years in prison.
Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega party and government ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has already said he will file an appeal if found guilty.
He has rejected the accusations, repeatedly alleging that the judges were being “political” and maintaining that their only fault was wanting to “protect Italy.”
One of the prosecutors, Geri Ferrara, told the court in September that human rights should take precedence over the “protection of state sovereignty.”
“A person stranded at sea must be saved and it is irrelevant whether they are classified as a migrant, crew member or passenger,” he said.
An NGO ship called Open Arms was carrying 147 migrants picked up off the coast of Libya when it was prevented from docking on the Italian island of Lampedusa by order of Salvini, then interior minister.
The Open Arms remained at sea for almost three weeks and the health situation of the migrants on board seriously deteriorated.
Finally, the prosecutor of the Sicilian city of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, ordered the preventive seizure of the ship after inspecting it and verifying the “difficult situation on board.”
Salvini maintained that the then Government of Giuseppe Conte had fully supported him in his mission to “close the ports” of Italy to NGO rescue ships.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni supported her deputy prime minister and said she counted on the “solidarity” of her and her government.
“Making the duty to protect Italy’s borders from illegal immigration a crime is a very serious precedent,” he posted on X earlier this year.
She has never indicated that she would expect his resignation in the event of a guilty verdict, and Salvini, for his part, has said he would not resign.
In recent months he has frequently referenced the trial and upcoming verdict in social media posts and during public speeches and interviews.
“I want to believe that Italy is a normal country, and that in a normal country someone who defends the borders is not found guilty,” he told Italian media earlier this week. If that were the case, he said, “it would be terrible news for the country and a cause for celebration for human traffickers and Italy’s enemies.”
He has also alleged that the Italian judiciary was “politicized” and that some magistrates “clearly followed left-wing politics.”
Elly Schlein, leader of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, accused Salvini of “spreading propaganda and fueling a serious institutional clash.”
The three prosecutors in the case have been under police protection since September after being harassed online and receiving threats.
Members of Salvini’s Lega party have joined him and are preparing demonstrations in his support.
On Wednesday, Lega MEPs showed up at a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg wearing T-shirts that read “Guilty of defending Italy,” a slogan Salvini has used in the past.
“A conviction would be an incredibly serious matter,” said Lega undersecretary Andrea Crippa: “It would be like condemning the entire Italian people, the Italian parliament and the elected government.”
Lombardy Lega party president Attilio Fontana said a guilty verdict would be “so aberrant, even from a judicial point of view, that I don’t even want to think about it.”
Others outside Italy have also joined the debate.
“That crazy prosecutor should be the one who goes to prison for six years,” Elon Musk tweeted, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Salvini, called the trial “shameful.”
If convicted, Salvini has said he will appeal the verdict “up to the Supreme Court of Cassation,” Italy’s highest court.
That process could take months and Salvini’s position in government and parliament would not be affected.
