Salvini, Open Arms trial ruling: acquitted because the fact does not exist

The Palermo court has acquitted, because the fact does not exist, the leader of the League and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini of the charges of kidnapping and refusal of official documents in the trial for the affair of the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms (ALL UPDATES IN REAL TIME). It was August 2019 and the leader of the League was Minister of the Interior. The 147 migrants were not disembarked and remained at sea for 19 days. The Palermo prosecutor's office had requested a six-year prison sentence while the civil parties had requested a sentence of one million euros as compensation for damages. The reading of the device was greeted by applause from politicians and supporters who came to express solidarity with Salvini and the minister hugged his girlfriend Fracesca Verdini, present in the chamber, for a long time. Today before entering the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison for the hearing, Salvini said he was “absolutely proud of what I did”, because he had “kept the promises made” and “contrasted mass immigration”.

Salvini: “Whoever thought of using migrants to engage in politics lost”

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is satisfied: “I am happy: after three years the League has won, Italy has won, Defending the homeland is not a crime but a right. From tomorrow I will return to work in the office with enthusiasm, desire, passion, determination and energy. We took a risk, but those who don't don't go anywhere”, he declared a few minutes after the acquittal. For the leader of the League, in fact, “common sense won. Those who thought of using migrants to engage in politics lost and are returning to Spain with their hands in their pockets”, he highlighted. The deputy prime minister then took things further: “I am certainly curious to hear from the left-wing accusers, the professors who rage on television, in newspapers and who until half an hour ago believed that I was a dangerous criminal, racist, fascist. I am curious to know what they will say in front of a court ruling. I am sorry for the millions of euros that the trial brought by the Democratic Party and Five Star has cost the Italians. I am happy because it has been established that the League's battle to defend the borders is sacrosanct”. Salvini then continued: “Now we also need to think about tomorrow's justice, I have broad shoulders, even in the event of a conviction I would have continued anyway. But if I think that 1000 Italians are arrested unjustly every year but don't have the money for a lawyer and they lose their jobs, their loved ones and their lives. We need to rethink the times and methods of justice. What did I do immediately after the sentence? judge is in feet and reads the sentence comes fear”, he concluded.

Camps: “Sorry for the people deprived of their freedom”

Oscar Camps, founder of the NGO Open Arms, had a different reaction. “The regret is above all for the people, who, as we said from the first minute, were deprived of their freedom. We are waiting for the judges' reasons, to evaluate whether to appeal the sentence as we also hope for the Public Prosecutor's Office. With this trial, which is unique in Italian and European history, we wanted to restore dignity to the 147 people held on board and deprived of their freedom for 20 days”, he declared a few minutes after the sentence. With this process, according to the founder of Open Arms, “we requested respect for our humanitarian work, too often denigrated and accused of colluding with criminal actions, work that we were prevented from carrying out in those weeks, while we were facing the coast of Lampedusa without the possibility of reaching a safe port. We have always said that we have suffered damage linked to the impossibility of continuing our mission. Saving lives is what Open Arms has been doing for 10 years done so far, we will do it tomorrow too. Our work does not stop”, he concluded.

Meloni's “solidarity” and Delmastro's attack on the judges

Present in the chamber to support Salvini were, among others, the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara, Claudio Durigon, deputy secretary of the League, and the Northern League parliamentarian Alessandro Morelli. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also took Salvini's side: during communications to the Senate prior to the European Council of recent days she announced “the solidarity of the entire government”. Everyone stand up, senators and ministers. Remaining within the ranks of the Brothers of Italy, the undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro had not spared an attack on the judges: “I heard an indictment from the prosecutor and it seemed to me to be a proclamation from a social center rather than an indictment”.

The Open Arms case: the tug of war between Salvini and the NGO

It all began on August 1, 2019, when the Open Arms rescued around 120 migrants in waters in the Libyan area. Then he asks for the assignment of a safe port to both Italy and Malta. Salvini, head of the Interior Ministry, denies it: the tug-of-war with the ship's commander begins. On August 9, the NGO's lawyers appealed to the juvenile court requesting the disembarkation of the migrants who were not yet adults and presented the first complaint. A few hours later they rescue another group of people on a damaged piece of wood. These are 39 migrants.

The intervention of the judicial authority

On 12 August the Palermo court orders the minors to disembark. Meanwhile, the ship continues to sail towards Lampedusa and does not stop asking Malta and Italy to be allowed to enter the port. Against the wall of Rome, the NGO appeals to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court: on the eve of August 15th the entry ban is suspended. Then Open Arms presents a complaint to the Agrigento Prosecutor's Office claiming that, contrary to the administrative judge's decision, Salvini continues to deny entry. On 20 August the prosecutor of Agrigento Luigi Patronaggio boards the ship. Seize the vessel by overcoming the stall. On board, of the initial 164 rescued in Libyan SAR waters, after transfers for medical reasons, 88 remained. The Agrigento Prosecutor's Office begins investigations.

From the investigations to the trial against Salvini

Salvini is entered in the register of suspects. The hypotheses of crime: kidnapping and refusal of official documents, in collaboration with his head of Cabinet Matteo Piantedosi. For jurisdiction, the papers are sent to the prosecutors of Palermo – the Sicilian capital is the seat of the court of ministers – who formulates the accusation for Salvini (at the same time filing for Piantedosi). In 2020 the Senate, unlike what happens in the case of the Navy ship Diciotti, gives the green light. On 17 April 2021, the preliminary hearing judge Lorenzo Jannelli ordered the indictment. The trial begins on September 15, 2021: it continues for over three years, for 24 hearings. Among the witnesses were the former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the former Foreign Minister Giuseppe Di Maio and the current Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. On 14 September the Prosecutor's Office asked for Salvini's conviction for “the intentional and conscious disregard of the rules and conscious and voluntary denial of the personal freedom of 147 people”.