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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Italy's Salvini acquitted in migrant trial

Salvini had strongly denied charges of abuse of office and the deprivation of liberty of 147 migrants on board the Open Arms charity ship in August 2019, when he was interior minister in a previous government.

/ December 20, 2024
Opposition populist leader Matteo Salvini greets senator Giulia Bongiorno during the debate at the Italian Senate on whether to allow him to be prosecuted – as he demands to be -- for alleging holding migrants hostage for days aboard coast guard ship Gregoretti instead of letting them immediately disembark in Sicily, while he was interior minister. Salvini says being on trial for alleged kidnapping is tantamount to defending his country from illegal migrants he blames for crime and for subtracting jobs from Italians. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

PALERMO, Sicily (AFP) — An Italian court on Friday acquitted Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of illegally blocking migrants on a rescue ship in 2019, after a lengthy and high-profile trial.

Supporters of Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party and a partner in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, broke into applause at the verdict in court in Palermo, Sicily.

Salvini had strongly denied charges of abuse of office and the deprivation of liberty of 147 migrants on board the Open Arms charity ship in August 2019, when he was interior minister in a previous government.

He had refused to let the ship disembark the migrants it had rescued in the Mediterranean.

The stand-off lasted nearly three weeks and made global headlines, with other EU nations offering to take the migrants, humanitarian groups weighing in and even Hollywood actor Richard Gere visiting the ship in solidarity.

In the end, the migrants were allowed to disembark on the Italian island of Lampedusa following a court order.

Salvini was present to hear the president of the Palermo court, Roberto Murgia, read out a brief statement saying he was acquitted.

—

By Agence France-Presse

Categories / International, Trials

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