Former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini is due to stand trial on Saturday in the Sicilian capital Palermo for his 2019 role in preventing the Open Arms migrant rescue ship from docking at an Italian port.
The prosecution accuses Salvini of deprivation of liberty and abuse of authority, after he prevented the Spanish aid organization's ship from entering a port in August 2019 during his time as minister.
The head of the right-wing Lega party could face 15 years in prison if convicted.
Salvini was interior minister from June 2018 to September 2019 in the first cabinet of ex-prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
Salvini pursued what was considered a harsh anti-migration line.
In August 2019, the Open Arms vessel had rescued more than 160 people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea over the course of three interventions starting on August 1, according to information supplied by the aid organization about its 65th mission.
The Open Arms was moored off Lampedusa from around mid-August, but was not allowed to dock there. The sanitary situation and tension on board came to a head. Desperate people kept jumping into the water in an attempt to swim ashore.
In the end, the public prosecutor's office arranged for the Open Arms to be impounded following an inspection on board, which meant that it could dock with the remaining migrants.
Salvini repeatedly stressed that his actions had been in defence of Italy and in the government's interest. The trial formally began on September 15, but was immediately postponed, as had been expected, to October 23.
Source: DPA
