Reportage
Matteo Salvini charged with kidnapping in Open Arms case for refusing a safe port to migrants
Prosecutors have asked for six years in prison for the Lega leader on the charges of kidnapping and refusal to perform official acts. Salvini did everything out of self-interest: his aim was to get more electoral support by exploiting the fight against illegal immigration, they said.
It was Matteo Salvini who approved the decrees preventing NGO ships from entering Italian territorial waters. It was Matteo Salvini who delayed and denied a safe port to the Open Arms vessel that had 147 migrants on board. It was Matteo Salvini who led the technical committee, and it was he who received updates “constantly and on a daily basis” regarding the Spanish ship forced to remain at sea for 20 days. It was Matteo Salvini who ruled that the redistribution of migrants should be agreed on first, before issuing a safe port.
According to the prosecutors in the Open Arms trial, the vice-premier is solely responsible, as the documents entered into evidence and the witness testimony have shown. They argue that the defense’s claim that every decision was agreed upon by Salvini with the other relevant ministers of the Conte government is false; even the then-prime minister, who took the stand at the trial, was kept in the dark about certain decisions.
Salvini, according to the prosecution's argument, did everything out of self-interest: his aim was to get more electoral support by exploiting the fight against illegal immigration. “There were no grounds” to act in such a way, the prosecution accuses, and that is why Salvini must be convicted. Deputy Public Prosecutor Marzia Sabella and Assistant Prosecutors Geri Ferrara and Giorgia Righi have asked for six years in prison for the Lega leader on the charges of kidnapping and refusal to perform official acts.
For these crimes, the Criminal Code does not offer any alternative to a prison sentence. In the seven-hour presentation of the indictment statement, the prosecution tried to clear up a number of outstanding issues, such as those related to the navy submarine Venuti, whose report sent to the Interior Ministry at the time was deemed irrelevant to the trial. Ferrara gave an overview of the national and supranational regulatory framework, arguing that the then-Interior Minister of the Conte government violated treaties, European regulations and Constitutional Court rulings. Righi went through the entire affair step by step, recalling a number of testimonies, including that of former Prime Minister Conte, as well as written memos sent to Salvini complaining about leaks and decisions not shared with the government.
“A safe port should have been issued for Open Arms immediately and without delay. The refusal was in defiance of the regulations and not aimed at implementing a government project,” and this ”conscious and voluntary refusal [by Salvini to perform his duties] harmed the freedom of each of the 147 people, and there was no grounds for it.”
She took care to mention the migrants, “the great absentees at this trial: the people against whom the offense was committed were not present. Most of them could not be located, but that’s not because they are illegal immigrants or criminals. Perhaps they don't have a home. We will read the names of these people one by one to remember them.”
Her words were appreciated by Oscar Camps, the founder and legal representative of Open Arms: “We are moved and grateful to the prosecutors for remembering the migrants who suffered during those days.” Going through the very lengthy indictment, the prosecutors stressed several times that there was no danger of terrorism on board the ship, as testified by “all the ministers, officials and various witnesses heard during the trial.” Thus, there was no need to “protect state sovereignty,” as the defense has stubbornly argued.
“I plead guilty to having defended Italy and the Italians. I plead guilty to keeping my word,” Salvini commented. He added: “Never has any government and never has any minister in history been indicted and tried for defending their country's borders.”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended him: “Turning the duty to protect Italy's borders from illegal immigration into a crime is an extremely serious precedent. I give my full support to Minister Salvini.”
The government and FdI have alluded to feeling like they were under attack; however, during the indictment address, Prosecutor Ferrara stressed that “this is not a political trial,” because “it is incontestable that no political act is involved,” with the trial only focusing on “administrative acts, such as the delay or denial of the safe port.”
“The key element,” the prosecution stressed, “was the moment when Salvini took up the role of minister” and ”moved the decisions on the management of landings and the issuance of safe ports from the Department of Civil Liberties and Immigration to his cabinet office.” In short, he centralized these powers in his own person. And the defense that he put the protection of national borders before human rights has no validity: “There is a key principle that is not debatable: in our system, which is, fortunately, a democratic one, human rights prevail over the protection of state sovereignty,” Prosecutor Ferrara stressed.
“People at sea must be rescued, and what they’re classified as is irrelevant: whether migrant, crew member or passenger,” because ”according to the international law of the SAR convention, even a human trafficker or a terrorist must be rescued; justice must take its course afterwards.” The attempts to redistribute the migrants before issuing a safe port “cannot work: first you must get the migrants off and then you redistribute them. Otherwise, there is the risk of playing politics with people who are suffering.”
Defense lawyer Giulia Bongiorno accused the prosecutor in turn of playing politics: “The moment she says that the technical committee, the decrees and directives are all unacceptable, outrageous and contrary to human rights, she is actually putting the political line of that government on trial. The government’s line is under indictment here, not Salvini's conduct.”
In the last hearing, on October 18, after the civil parties are heard, Salvini's defense will have the opportunity to make its case. The Lega has already announced demonstrations in the streets. The verdict could come by the end of the year.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/open-arms-salvini-ha-fatto-tutto-da-solo-i-pm-chiedono-6-anni on 2024-09-15