Open Arms, Salvini acquitted. “The fact does not exist”

The sentence arrives at 7.40pm, just in time for the opening titles of the early evening news. «Acquitted, because the fact does not exist», says the president of the II criminal section Roberto Murgia reading the dispositive, «the deadline for filing the reasons is set within 90 days». Then, the judges of the Court leave the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison without making any statement, as does the pool of prosecutors Marzia Sabella, Geri Ferrara and Giorgia Righi, led by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia. Matteo Salvini remains in the classroom, with his fist clenched in victory. Next to him, his girlfriend Francesca Verdini bursts into liberating tears, until he hugs her for a long time. There is also time for compliments to the Northern League lawyer and senator Giulia Bongiorno and her colleagues: “You were all good.” Then, the deputy prime minister and secretary of the Northern League speaks in front of the cameras: «I'm happy – he comments, euphoric – after three years the League has won, Italy has won. Common sense has won, it is a wonderful day… Defending the homeland is not a crime, but a right. I will move forward even more determined than before.” Those who defended him in the courtroom during the 24 hearings of a grueling trial also rejoiced: «Among the acquittal formulas, the fullest one was chosen, which states that there is no crime», comments Bongiorno.

A process that lasted three years

Thus ends the first degree trial, which began three years ago, with Salvini busy commuting between Rome and Palermo, to sit in the dock on charges of kidnapping and refusal of official documents. Accusations for which the prosecutors have asked for his sentence to 6 years in prison, while the civil parties (including the defenders of some migrants held on board) have presented the Court with a request for a sentence of one million euros in compensation of the damages suffered. Penalties which, however, the judges of the Palermo court decided, after seven hours of deliberation, should not be imposed.

A day of waiting

The judges' ruling comes at the end of a day of waiting, during which the accused Salvini and his partner tried to conceal the tension by leaving the courtroom, visiting the rooms of Palazzo dei Normanni and consuming a quick meal in a bar in via Principe di Belmonte, the “living room” of the Sicilian capital. The Northern League leader had landed in Palermo on Thursday evening, returning from Brussels and had not joined his Sicilian parliamentarians (called for a symbolic and supportive board meeting), but had gone straight to the hotel in Mondello. «He preferred to be alone and concentrated», reported the Northern League “colonel” on the island, Senator Nino Germanà. Then, in the morning, the minister showed up in the bunker room before the start of the hearing, together with his lawyers. «I enter the classroom proud of my work. I absolutely won't give up. In case of conviction, we will appeal”, he told journalists before entering, “I am absolutely proud of what I did. Whatever the sentence is for me, I would do and do again everything I have done. And even in the event of conviction, I do not intend to resign.” Then, the last act of the trial took place. And after the brief final replies from the prosecutor's office and the defenders, the judges withdrew to their chambers. From the end of the morning until the evening, the attention of politicians and public opinion remained focused on the bunker room in Palermo, outside which dozens of reporters remained waiting with notebooks and cameras, gathered from all over Europe to tell the outcome of an investigation started in 2019, when the then Agrigento prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio opened a case after the prolonged disembarkation ban decided by the Ministry of the Interior, at the time led by the secretary Northern League, against 147 migrants rescued at sea by the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms.

Reasons within three months

So far, the news. To find out what the thread of legal reasoning was followed by the Court to reach the verdict, we will have to wait until we read the reasons. And only after having weighed them, it can be assumed that the prosecutor's office will evaluate whether or not to file an appeal application. Yesterday morning, in his final rejoinder, the lawyer Bongiorno reiterated that Salvini's defense was a “defence of the state's borders”. Then he evoked the «mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale, where if we illuminate just one detail we cannot see the rest». Thus, he said, “the Prosecutor's Office illuminates individual details, obscuring the general meaning”. In September, however, the prosecutors closed the indictment by claiming that “the defense of the borders cannot be invoked without taking into account the protection of human life at sea” and specifying that “it is not a political trial, but rather based on administrative acts” . However, and perhaps inevitably given the defendant's government role, in the end politics was unable to stay out of it.