A question of dates. Before August 15, after August 15. This is the main difference between the defense thesis and the accusation on the first day of testimonials in the trial against Matteo Salvini, to trial in Palermo for kidnapping e refusal of official documents in case Open Arms. The first eight witnesses (out of a total of 26 called, including Conte, Di Maio, Lamorgese, Toninelli and Trenta who will testify between March and May next) retraced the days of August 2019 when the NGO ship with 167 migrants aboard wandered for twenty days off the coast of Sicily waiting for a Place of safety (Pos), a safe harbor where to dock, not granted by the then head of the Interior Ministry. And it is precisely on this point that the accusation of the Public Prosecutor of Palermo hinges. The trial in the bunker hall of the Pagliarelli prison, which began last October 23, got underway: “Open Arms (ship flying the Spanish flag, ed) said he was unable to get to Spain but he proposed to have the migrants disembark on board a ship of the Italian navy, to be transported there. We replied that we were only able to do this for one limited number of passengers and not for everyone, and they refused, ”he recalled Sergio Liardo, head of the III Department “Plans and Operations” of the General Command of the Port authorities. A crucial step, especially since Salvini’s defense has repeatedly emphasized how the NGO should refer to Country of origin, where however he refused to go. Refusing at first even the landing in Malta, granted only to some migrants. After days of agony, therefore, the NGO proposed the alternative of transshipment, which also results from the papers filed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Liardo reconstructed the case from the beginning: “The August 1, 2019 the Open Arms ship informed us that it had made a rescue of 52 people in area Sar (search and rescue, ed) Libyan, then go up to 55. Since this is a first communication, given the fact that we as Italy had not coordinated that activity, we communicated everything to Ministry of the Interior. Following the safety decree bis was issued a decree of prohibition of entry into territorial waters signed by the Ministry of the Interior, also signed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Defense. Then there is a request for Pos sent to us and to Malta ”. Testimony that is suitable for the defense, because it shows that “it was not of Italian competence the intervention on the NGO “, as Salvini’s lawyer stressed several times, Giulia Bongiorno. “The ship refused to go to Tunisia, to disembark 39 immigrants in Malta, to sail to Spain (denial reiterated on two occasions), did not provide details on the health state of the individual people on board (he asked to have them all disembark, but exclusively in Italy) ”, underline sources of the defense. Again, the NGO “headed for Libya lying to the Italian authorities, since she left for Tripoli after having communicated that she would stop in Lampedusa. It could only have accommodated 19 people on board but loaded more than 150 in three different events. Once in Italian waters, Open Arms was constantly controlled, supervised, assisted. And, once in the harbor, it was in good condition complete safety. The ship wandered around the Mediterranean, ignoring the requests and proposals of Madrid and Valletta from 2 to 15 August 2019 putting health at risk of immigrants on board ”, the defensive reconstruction continues.
The prosecution of the prosecutor Gery Ferrara it focuses, however, on the days following the pronunciation of the Tar of Lazio than on August 14 the ban on entry was suspended in Italian waters. And it is here that the two versions, even on the outcome of today’s testimonies, diverge completely. After August 15, according to the prosecutor, the former deputy premier he could not refrain from granting the landing in Lampedusa. “It was a ship overcrowded with migrants, certainly tested by the long stay on board. They were on a deck covered by an awning. There were very limited portable toilets for such a large number of people on board, ”said the captain Edoardo Anedda, commander of the naval and operational units of the naval station of the Guardia di Finanza of Palermo. “I don’t think” it was possible “to make a split landing. Absolutely not. Could have created a greater psychological distress“, he has declared. Stressing that “after 18 days there were no conditions to undertake a further journey “to Spain” in safety. The hearing lasted for almost seven hours, including some pauses in which the leader of the League, present in the courtroom, allowed himself a few phone calls, briefly returning to political activity, and then returning to the courtroom. He wore a mask with the words “Italy first: beautiful, free, fair”. At the end, he reiterated what had already been said during the preliminary hearings: “I should be thanked, instead they are on trial “.