• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, August 15, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Italy’s Far-Right Salvini to Stand Trial for Illegally Detaining Migrants

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
02/12/20
in Featured, Refugees, World
League leader Matteo Salvini

Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League, has already toned down his criticism of the euro. Photo: Tony Gentile, Reuters

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini is to stand trial on charges of illegally detaining migrants at sea after senators voted Wednesday to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.

A court in Sicily recommended that former interior minister Salvini stand trial for blocking migrants from disembarking from a coast guard boat last July.

But ministers cannot be tried for actions taken while in office unless their parliamentary immunity is revoked.

The Senate’s decision sends the chief of the anti-immigrant League party to trial for abuse of power and illegal detention, charges for which he faces up to 15 years in jail.

“I have defended Italy. I have full and total faith in the justice system,” Salvini told ANSA news agency after the vote.

“I am not worried at all, and I’m proud of what I’ve done,” he said, adding he would “do it again when I get back into power.”

Salvini had refused to allow 116 rescued migrants to leave the Gregoretti coast guard boat – where they had been languishing for about a week in insalubrious conditions – until a deal was reached with other European states to host them.

A Catania court accused him of “abuse of power” in blocking them on board from July 27 to July 31 last year, and of illegally detaining them.

Salvini insists the decision had the backing of the government and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

‘Head Held High’ 

Before the debate began, Salvini took to Facebook to say he had his “head held high, with the calm conscience of those who have defended their land and people.”

“If a man is not ready to fight for his ideas, either his ideas are worthless, or he is,” Salvini wrote, quoting Ezra Pound, a 20th-century American poet known for his fascist sympathies.

The Gregoretti on July 25 took on board 140 migrants who were trying to make the perilous crossing from war-torn Libya to Europe – the same day 110 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast.

Some migrants in need of urgent medical care were taken from the coastguard vessel but 116 of them remained on board for almost a week.

The then-interior minister’s “closed ports” policy, aimed at stopping migrant arrivals from Libya, saw his popularity numbers shoot up.

Italy has long complained that its European partners have abandoned it to deal alone with migrant arrivals.

Under Italy’s constitution, parliament can block legal proceedings if lawmakers feel the minister was performing his job and in the national interest.

The interior minister can limit or forbid entry into or transit through Italy’s waters on public security grounds – except in cases involving military vessels or ships in non-commercial governmental services like coast guard boats.

Salvini’s League party joined a coalition government as the Five Star Movement’s junior partner in 2018 but gained popularity largely thanks to his tough anti-immigrant stance.

Conte, who has remained prime minister while Salvini provoked his own ousting from government in August last year, says he was not the one to decide whether the migrants should be allowed into port.

“The minister (Salvini) had a new decree approved which strengthened his powers,” Conte said in January. “He claimed the right to decide if and when to disembark the people aboard the Gregoretti.”

Second Trial? 

Salvini managed to avoid trial in a similar episode, in which he prevented 177 rescued migrants aboard the coast guard vessel Diciotti from disembarking for several days in August 2018.

Then, the League-M5S government agreed it was a joint decision and the Senate subsequently blocked Salvini from facing trial.

Salvini, whose party recently lost a key regional election in Emilia Romagna, faces yet another hurdle on February 27.

A Senate committee is to decide on lifting his immunity for forcing the charity rescue vessel Open Arms to remain at sea for days off the coast of Lampedusa in August last year.

Given the slow pace of the Italian justice system, Salvini faces no immediate risk.

However, if he is eventually convicted he would be barred from politics for six to eight years.


More on the Subject 

Italy’s Far-Right Salvini Out of Power Following New Coalition Deal

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

migrants
Refugees

Hundreds of Rescued Migrants Disembark in Italy’s Sicily

by Staff Writer
December 29, 2021
migrants
Refugees

NGO Ship Carrying 800 Migrants Pleads for Safe Port

by Staff Writer
November 5, 2021
Migrants fleeing Libyan waters to settle in Europe
Refugees

Over 1,400 Migrants Land on Italy’s Lampedusa Island

by Staff Writer
May 10, 2021
Vatican has vaccinated 25 people experiencing homelessness against the coronavirus.
World

Vatican Vaccinates Homeless Against Coronavirus

by Staff Writer
January 20, 2021
A line for Covid-19 screening at a testing station set up at Fiumicino airport, near Rome.
World

First ‘Covid-Tested’ Flight Lands in Rome From New York

by Staff Writer
December 9, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Research
World

Italy Begins Human Trials of COVID-19 Vaccine

by Alexandra Marquez
August 24, 2020
Next Post
US President Donald Trump

What Past Impeachments Reveal About Trump’s Future Legacy

The Chinese flag flies over a mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang

Exiled Uighurs Fear Spread of Coronavirus in China Camps

Recommended

Marina Ovsyannikova

Russian TV Journalist Faces Jail Time for Anti-Putin Protest

August 10, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

August 9, 2022
Ukraine nuclear plant

Ukraine Calls for De-Militarization of Occupied Nuclear Plant

August 8, 2022
Toru Kubota

Myanmar Junta Charges Japanese Journalist With Encouraging Dissent

August 4, 2022
Nancy Pelosi

Taiwan Defiant as China Readies Military Drills Over Pelosi Visit

August 3, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022

Opinion

Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Owning the Words and the Libs

June 16, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

June 3, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post