Matteo Salvini will be prosecuted for kidnapping …

From Rome.Former Minister of the Interior and head of the Right-wing League, Matteo Salvini, can be ultimately sued, as decided this Saturday by the Court of Justice of Palermo (Sicily), for having “illegally” detained 147 migrants for 19 days aboard a vessel of the Spanish humanitarian organization Open Arms, who sailed in the Mediterranean to save migrants. According to data from the International Organization for Migration, in figures which are certainly not super exact but which give an idea of ​​the seriousness of the problem, in 2019, 1,835 migrants died in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, and in 2020 there were 1,096.

This “kidnapping of people”, according to the definition of the Salvini ban, took place in August 2019, when he was Minister of the Interior, and from what is known so far, he himself made the decision to detain the migrants on the ship, without consulting the government then chaired by Giuseppe Conte. The Open Arms ship that rescued migrants from Libya, intended to disembark them on the island of Lampedusa, the Italian territory closest to Libya. But Salvini’s decision prevented the men, women and minors of several African countries who had suffered all kinds of abuse from human traffickers in Libya, from disembarking and receiving the medical treatment they wanted. needed.

Salvini is officially accused of “kidnapping persons” and “negligence in the performance of his duty”, and for this he will be prosecuted, as he has officially announced. the chief prosecutor of Palermo, Francesco Lo Voi, in the bunker of the Usiardone prison in Palermo, after the evaluation discussion with two other judges, of the data collected during the preliminary inquiries. “We do not see how in a case like this the person cannot be brought to justice,” Magistrate Lo Voi said, reiterating Salvini’s decision was not shared with the government chaired by Conte . “The decision was taken exclusively by the Minister of the Interior who took it, as the then Minister of Foreign Affairs said. Luigi Di Maio, then made it known to other members of the government through a tweet, ”Lo Voi said.

According to European standards, migrants were to be received and then redistributed in Italy or other European countries by decision of Prime Minister Conte. But for this, Conte had to receive an official communication from the Minister of the Interior (called Pos) which never arrived because Salvini was firmly opposed to the arrival of the migrants. “The contrary will of the Minister of the Interior to send the Pos emerges from the acts”, he explained. the fiscal Marzia Sabella.

The civil party or the plaintiffs in the process will be among others the municipality of Palermo and the environmental organization Legambiente Sicilia. The municipality’s decision “is a way of confirming solidarity and closeness with the person who has been the victim of this behavior,” he said. the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando. Yes and the president of Legambiente Sicilia, Gianfranco Zanna, commented for his part: “As Minister of the Interior, Salvini cynically prevented the disembarkation of the migrants, these poor people who escaped the wars, the hunger, the violence suffered in Libya and who after having risked their life crossing the sea, they should have benefited from safety ”.

The Palermo public prosecutor’s office decided to prosecute Salvini despite the fact that the public prosecutor of Catania (still in Sicily) for another similar case released him free of charge, arguing that there was not enough evidence to address it. It was about the Italian navy ship Gregoretti Salvini forced 116 migrants to stay at sea for three days.

Salvini’s reaction was swift anyway, showing himself as a hero defending the Italians on Saturday. “I worried? Don’t, I am proud to have defended Italy, for having worked to protect my country by respecting the law, by waking up Europe and by saving lives ”, he declared, without mentioning that he knew very well that he could be sentenced to a sentence up to 15 years in prison for the crimes he accuses.

As a senator, the decision to prosecute Salvini first had to go through the Senate of the Republic to eliminate “parliamentary immunity”. And that was the case in a vote held in July of last year, where the votes in favor of his treatment are 149 against 141.

The date of the process is not yet known.