A verdict is expected on Friday in the trial of Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who is accused of kidnap and dereliction of duty over his refusal to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Italy in 2019.
Prosecutors in Sicily have asked judges to sentence him to six years in jail.
Salvini, who’s leader of the right-wing Lega party and a government ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has already said he will lodge an appeal if found guilty.
He has pushed back against the accusations, repeatedly alleging the judges were being “political” and maintaining his only guilt was in wanting to “protect Italy”.
One of the prosecutors, Geri Ferrara, told the court in September that human rights had to prevail over the “protection of state sovereignty”.
“A person stranded at sea must be saved and it is irrelevant whether they are classified as a migrant, a crewmember or a passenger”, she said.
An NGO ship called Open Arms was carrying 147 migrants picked up off the Libyan coast when it was prevented from docking on the Italian island of Lampedusa on the orders of Salvini, who was interior minister at the time.
The Open Arms remained at sea for almost three weeks, and the health situation of the migrants on board seriously deteriorated
