Italian deputy PM Salvini faces further trial over migrant boats

Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, is to stand trial again for his crackdown on the arrival of Mediterranean refugees.

The public prosecutor’s office said on Friday it was appealing against a previous acquittal ruling.

The case will now go straight to Italy’s Supreme Court in Rome. A date for the new trial has not yet been set.

As transport minister and deputy to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Salvini is one of the central figures in the right-wing three-party coalition in Rome.

During his time as interior minister in a previous Cabinet, he made a name for himself internationally with a tough stance against migrants, especially those arriving from the Middle East and North Africa by boat.

There were several disputes with German aid organizations, who had rescued migrants at sea.

The leader of the right-wing League party was on trial in Sicily until December last year for preventing a ship carrying refugees from entering a harbour for weeks in 2019, when he was interior minister.

The court in Palermo acquitted Salvini of charges of deprivation of liberty and abuse of office.

The vessel belonging to the Spanish organization Open Arms was off the island of Lampedusa with over 160 migrants, but was not allowed to enter the port. People jumped into the water and tried to swim ashore.

It was only allowed to dock after a public prosecutor ordered it to do so – against the wishes of the minister.

With its long coastline and islands in the Mediterranean, Italy is one of the European countries particularly affected by migration across the sea.

Salvini has described himself as a victim of a politicized judiciary and accused it of persecuting him for political reasons.