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German captain Carola Rackete, who made the headlines in the international press by forcibly anchoring herself in an Italian port with rescued migrants, was questioned Thursday by an Italian prosecutor for allegedly helping in immigration illegal.
The captain of Sea-Watch 3 arrived at the court in the town of Agrigento, in the south of Sicily, shortly before 10:00 (08:00 GMT).
She was greeted by a scrum as she climbed the steps leading to the courtroom under a blazing sun, without comment.
Rackete was arrested on 29 June for entering the Italian port of Lampedusa despite a veto imposed by the far right Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, and overturning a Coast Guard boat to land. 40 migrants stranded at sea for more than two weeks.
A judge canceled his arrest three days later, claiming that the 31-year-old had simply acted to save lives.
Rackete remains in custody in the Sicilian port of Licata and is still the subject of two investigations: one for having entered the Italian waters despite an order to stop direct and another for helping to l & # 39; Illegal immigration.
She will be heard Thursday on the latter and will have to explain why her team saved the migrants without waiting for the Libyan coastguards, who have jurisdiction over the extent of the water in which they were found.
The 31-year-old will also be asked why she then sailed the Dutch-flagged ship to Italy rather than to a Libyan or Tunisian port.
Salvini insists that Italian ports remain closed to people attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean.
Agrigento prosecutors have appealed this week to the highest court in Italy against the decision to drop the charges against Rackete for forcibly entering the port of Lampedusa, in the northern part of Italy. hope to create a precedent for postponing other privately operated vessels.
A few days after the Sea-Watch drama, another charity ship landed in Lampedusa, a scenario that is likely to recur.
& # 39; Criminal & # 39;
Salvini's hard line has resulted in a resurgence of rescue ship investigations by charities.
In March 2017, the Spanish ship Open Arms was seized and its captain and chief of mission were prosecuted after the crew refused to hand over the rescued migrants to the Libyan coastguard, who arrived on the scene during of a rescue operation.
A month later, a judge ordered that the ship be released on the grounds that Libya, affected by the crisis, could not be considered a safe harbor.
And the prosecutor's office in Catania, in eastern Sicily, has recently archived the case against the captain and the head of the mission.
The same prosecutor closed a similar investigation against the NGO Sea-Watch after a rescue operation in January, concluding that the actions of the crew were justified.
But the spectacular entry of the Sea-Watch 3 to the port in June marked a new chapter in the war between Salvini and the charity ships.
The arrest of the dreadlocked Rackete sparked an online campaign that allowed to raise in a few days more than 1.4 million euros (1.57 million dollars) in order to pay his legal fees and allow to the German NGO to continue its operations – with a new boat if necessary.
Tuesday, the Spanish parliament of Catalonia voted unanimously to honor the highest honor awarded to Rackete.
And the city of Paris has announced a donation of 100,000 euros to Sea-Watch, as well as a medal to Rackete and Pia Klemp, another German captain sued in Italy.
The decision taken by Paris furiously left the Italian far right, which noted that the French government had remained silent throughout the 15 days of blocking the ship at sea, despite Rackete's numerous calls for a safe harbor.
Salvini stepped up his attacks against the rescue charities, which he accused of helping the smugglers, while calling Rackete "big mouth" and "criminal".
Rackete filed a complaint last week for defamation and incitement to violence, pointing out that Salvini's hostile messages on social media have provoked a wave of badist, violent and threatening comments from users.
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