Italy's former minister Matteo Salvini faces trial over migrant kidnapping charges

Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini will be sent to trial on Saturday on kidnapping charges over a 2019 incident when 116 migrants were stopped from landing off a coastguard ship in the Mediterranean. The League party leader is accused of abusing his powers to block people from getting off the Gregoretti coastguard boat under his “closed ports” policy.

The 47-year-old politician called on his supporters to the courtroom in Catania to protest the “plot” against him. He argued that he was defending Italy and the Italians. Fellow leader Giorgia Meloni, head of the Brothers of Italy party will attend the rally, while ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has faced several trials himself, will send a delegation from his Forza Italia party.

Salvini is involved in a series of legal wrangles, most of which are connected to his tenure as a hardline interior minister. One of his first moves, when he took office in June 2018, was to declare Italian ports ‘closed’ to ships that engaged in rescuing people who fled Libya by boat. There were subsequently 25 clashes between rescue vessels and Italian authorities, some of which became the focus of criminal investigations.

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The 2019 disembarkment incident

The case coming before the court on Saturday concerns a group of migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean in two separate operations on June 25, 2019, after spending five days at sea. There were 15 unaccompanied children among those rescued. The migrants boarded the Gregoretti on July 26 and were made to hold on the overcrowded vessel under a fierce summer sun for a couple of days, despite a scabies outbreak and a suspected case of tuberculosis.

The unaccompanied children were allowed offshore on July 29 following pressure from Catania’s youth court. The rest of the migrants disembarked on July 31 after Salvini said a deal was made with EU countries to take them. A few months later, the city’s prosecutor’s office placed Salvini under investigation. In February 2020, the Italian senate formally authorised criminal proceedings.

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The politician’s defence team argued that the decision to hold the people on the ship was not Salvini’s alone, but was taken collectively by the government. The matter will be heard by a preliminary judge to decide whether the case is strong enough to initiate the trial.

As Salvini began to lose ground following his withdrawal from the League party in August 2020, he attempted to keep his anti-migrant rhetoric front in Italian politics, by linking the coronavirus pandemic to migrant arrivals. However, his strategy to exploit migrants citing they were threatening Italians by bringing the infection with them, failed to cut through. Despite the setbacks, Salvini still has a strong support base and is expected to rally thousands to his support in Catania on Saturday.

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(Image credits: AP)