Italy’s former interior minister Matteo Salvini went on trial on Saturday, for allegedly illegally blocking 147 rescued migrants in Italy’s sea in 2019, according to Italian media.
The former interior minister risks up to 15 years in prison, following accusations of kidnapping and abuse of power, according to the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Salvini was interior minister from June 2018 to September 2019 in the first cabinet of ex-Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and is known for an “Italians first” policy.
In August of 2019, a ship of the NGO Open Arms rescued some 150 migrants in the Mediterranean.
The NGO vessel, which anchored off the Italian Lampedusa Island, had requested to dock the ship after noticing a worsening health situation on board but was not allowed to. The sanitary situation and tension on board came to a head as desperate people kept jumping into the water in an attempt to swim ashore.
The Public Prosecutor’s office eventually arranged for the Open Arms ship to dock, with the migrants on board.
Salvini claimed that he was acting in favor of Italy in order to limit migrants from crossing into the Mediterranean, stressing that the decision had been approved by the Italian government at that time.
Salvini is also being investigated for a similar incident, involving Italian coastguard ship Gregoretti that he refused to allow permission to dock in the summer of 2019.
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