Salvini pleads “guilty of defending” Italy after Italian prosecutor asks for 6 years in prison for blocking ship with immigrants
This Saturday, Italian minister Matteo Salvini declared himself “guilty of defending” Italy, after the prosecutor’s office asked for six years in prison for having prevented, as head of the Interior, the disembarkation of migrants from a ship in August 2019.
“Article 52 of the Italian Constitution declares the defense of the homeland as a sacred duty of the citizen. I plead guilty of having defended Italy and the Italians. I plead guilty of having kept my word”, he stated, in a video released on your social networks.
The prosecutor’s office in the city court of Palermo (south) requested a sentence of six years in prison for the crimes of kidnapping and abuse of power for the far-right leader, who did not attend the court hearing in this case in which he is accused of the crimes. of kidnapping and abuse of power.
Prosecutor Marzia Sabela, from the Palermo prosecutor’s office, southern Italy, demanded this sentence after a long argument before the Palermo Court, highlighting in her conclusions, among other things, that “the conscious refusal” of that ship “impaired the personal freedom of 147” immigrants “without an understandable reason.”
The facts date back to August 2019, when Salvini, then Minister of the Interior, prevented the disembarkation of the rescue ship run by the Spanish organization Open Arms for 20 days, with 147 migrants on board saved in the Mediterranean, as part of his strict policy of closed ports. , to stop illegal migration.
Throughout the process, Salvini stated that his intention was to protect the borders and force a distribution of migrants in Europe and assured that his policies were “shared” by the rest of the government, a coalition between his League and the 5 Star Movement, presided over by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
The leader of the League lamented, in this video, with a black background and dramatic lighting, that “no government or minister in history has ever been accused or tried for having defended the limits of their own country”.
“My name is Matteo Salvini, I was born in Milan on March 9, 1973. I am vice-president of the Government and, between June 2018 and September 2019, I was Minister of the Interior. Today I am on trial and I can go to prison because in Parliament the left decided that defending borders is a crime”, he criticized, alluding to the lifting of his immunity voted in the Senate in July 2020.
The politician recalled the iron arm he maintained with the “Open Arms” boat, in August 2019, and assured that “at no time was he prevented from going anywhere, except Italy”, because, he stressed, the country “does not could continue to be Europe’s refugee camp”.
“More than 20 days of navigation in the Mediterranean keeping all these ‘clandestines’ on board[atermusedbytheItalianfarrighttorefertoirregularmigrants)when72hourswereenoughtoreachSpainThisSpanishshiptwicerefusedthedisembarkationintwoSpanishportsandthehelpofamilitaryshipsentbytheSpanishgovernment”hereported[termoutilizadopelaextrema-direitaitalianaparasereferiraosmigrantesirregulares)quando72horaseramsuficientesparachegaraEspanhaEstenavioespanholrecusouporduasvezesodesembarqueemdoisportosespanhóiseaajudadeumnaviomilitarenviadopelogovernoespanhol”relatou
The founder of Open Arms, Óscar Camps, expressed in a statement his satisfaction with the Public Ministry’s request.
The sentence is expected to be announced in mid-October.
Salvini is currently vice-president of Giorgia Meloni’s government and minister of Infrastructure.
