The appointment is at 10 am in front of the Politeama Theatre, right in the center of Palermo. Ministers, deputies, senators, regional parliamentarians and simple Northern League supporters will meet in Piazza Castelnuovo “to express solidarity” with Minister Matteo Salvini, on trial for kidnapping and refusal of official documents. In those same moments, the defense speech of the lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, President of the Justice Commission, will begin in the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison in Palermo, on the outskirts of the city. The accused will also be present. The lawyer will respond, as we learn, to the accusations of the Palermo prosecutor’s office, which in the last hearing, at the end of the indictment, asked for six years in prison for the deputy prime minister.
The magistrates of the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office have no doubts. By prohibiting the disembarkation of 147 migrants from the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms in the summer of 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who was then Minister of the Interior, with his no implemented “a kidnapping”. Hence the accusation against the minister. That he would have acted “in violation of international conventions and internal rules regarding rescue at sea and the protection of human rights”, but also “abusing the powers entrusted to him as a national public security authority”. Palermo Deputy Prosecutor Marzia During the indictment, which lasted seven hours, Sabella repeatedly recalled the 147 migrants who were the offended parties in the trial: “Human rights come before the defense of borders”, said the deputy prosecutor, paraphrasing the words often repeated by the accused.
“The hearing demonstrated that at least since 14 August 2019, Minister Salvini had the obligation to provide Pos, and the refusal occurred in total disregard of the rules,” the prosecution said. “The voluntary and conscious refusal” of Matteo Salvini to grant port to migrants on the Open Arms “has affected the personal freedom of 147 people for no appreciable reason”. Not only that. “In this process the presence of the majority of the offended people was missing, because even to be able to be offended people you have to be born in the right part. Most are untraceable and this does not mean that they are criminals, but it means being homeless and without means” , Sabella reiterated. Who then spoke of a “criminal process” “not granting safe harbor to migrants”.
Prosecutors ‘You cannot invoke the defense of borders without protecting human lives’
“The defense of borders cannot be invoked without taking into account the protection of human life at sea”, Sabella said in his indictment on 14 September, underlining: “In this proceeding it has been alleged that a wooden vessel, on the high seas, sailed safely, as if the whim of a wave could not cause it to capsize.” The prosecution is represented not only by the Deputy Prosecutor but also by prosecutors Geri Ferrara (now at the European Prosecutor’s Office) and by Giorgia Righi. “The Conte 1 Government, as emerged in this process, with its government contract envisaged raising awareness in Europe to obtain a fair distribution of migrants. The then Minister of the Interior (Matteo Salvini ed.) believed he could unbalance the unit of measurement of the legal assets in question, in favor of closed ports, as an instrument of pressure on the member states”, said the assistant prosecutor of Palermo at the beginning of his indictment.
“The person at sea must be saved, and his classification is irrelevant. Whether he is a migrant, a member of a crew, a passenger. According to the international law of the SAR Convention, even a human trafficker or a terrorist must be saved. Then , justice will take its course.” Instead, these were the words of prosecutor Geri Ferrara. Who during his speech spoke about the functioning of national and supranational law on rescues at sea.
“In this process the presence of the majority of the offended people was missing, because even to be able to be offended people you have to be born lucky – Sabella then explained -. Most of them are untraceable, and this does not mean being criminals or fugitives. But it means being homeless and without means. The physical absence, like the fact of considering them a group of migrants or, worse, illegal immigrants, may not make us perceive the negative value of the fact. We will read, one by one, the names of these people to remember them in the their individuality, because it is also for each of these people that we are going to ask for the conviction of the accused, as well as to defend the boundaries six prison sentences in addition to additional penalties”.
‘The accusation paints a picture that does not correspond to reality’
Words rejected by Salvini’s defense. “The prosecutors have painted a picture that does not correspond to reality”, said the lawyer Giulia Bongiorno at the end of the indictment. “It was said in the indictment that the decisions to delay the disembarkation after the redistribution were exclusively Salvini’s but that is not the case, because if you look at the public statements of other ministers, they all proudly claimed the rejections”, added Bongiorno last year September 14th.
For Bongiorno it was “a somewhat contradictory indictment, because the premise is ‘we are not putting the government on trial’ then, however, so far he has said that the security decree bis ‘is in conflict with the Constitution’ and that ‘it is not acceptable before redistribute and then disembark’. And that ‘the technical table is a table that overturned fundamental principles’. For now he is talking about government lines that he disputes. Therefore, Salvini’s conduct is not in the dock but on the there is a political line in the dock.” Tomorrow it will therefore be the defense’s turn. Awaiting the replies from the prosecution and defense and the sentence which will be issued between the end of October and November. (by Elvira Terranova)
