Prosecutors ask for 6 years prison for Matteo Salvini for blocking Open Arms ship

Italian prosecutors have requested six years in prison for the country's Minister of Transport and former Interior Minister, the far-right politician Matteo Salvini, for preventing an Open Arms boat from docking in a port in 2019. 

Open Arms is a Catalan refugee search and rescue NGO, and in the summer of 2019 attempted to dock in Sicily with 147 migrants on board.

The trial began in Palermo (Sicily) in October 2021, but had been interrupted and extended due to Salvini's immunity as an MEP.

In one of the last sessions held on Saturday, the Italian public office presented its request for the alleged crimes of kidnapping and denial of official acts, as explained by Open Arms.

October 18 will be the defense's turn to argue.

The events date back to August 2019, when a decree pushed by the former Interior Minister prevented the Open Arms ship from disembarking with 147 people on board who had been rescued at sea.

The ship was stopped for 20 days until the prosecutor of Agrigento, Sicily, allowed it.

Open Arms contested the decree and a criminal procedure was opened in which the humanitarian organization is the complainant.

The Barcelona city council also joined the case to claim financial and moral damages, since at that time the local council and the rescue organization had an agreement to finance the humanitarian expedition.