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Matteo Salvini trial for kidnapping authorised by Italian senate
Italy’s senate has formally authorised a criminal case against Matteo Salvini, the far-right leader accused of kidnap last year when, as interior minister, he prevented 131 migrants from disembarking from a coast guard ship.
Last December, the Italian court of ministers in Catania, Sicily, ruled that Salvini should be tried for allegedly depriving the asylum-seekers onboard the Gregoretti coastguard ship of their liberty by refusing to allow them to leave.
But in order to start a trial, magistrates needed the backing of the senate, which, on Wednesday, had to decide whether to allow the criminal case against Salvini to go ahead by lifting his immunity or whether proceedings should be halted. At the end of a heated debate, the majority of the senators voted to lift Salvini’s immunity and authorise the trial. The exact numbers of members who voted to authorise the proceedings will be made public later on Wednesday.
Before the vote, Salvini said the decision to prevent the migrants from disembarking was made with fellow members of government and, on Twitter he paraphrased a quote by the poet and fascist sympathiser Ezra Pound: “If a man is not willing to fight for his ideas either his ideas are worth nothing, or he is worth nothing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/matteo-salvini-trial-for-kidnapping-authorised-by-italian-senate
Last December, the Italian court of ministers in Catania, Sicily, ruled that Salvini should be tried for allegedly depriving the asylum-seekers onboard the Gregoretti coastguard ship of their liberty by refusing to allow them to leave.
But in order to start a trial, magistrates needed the backing of the senate, which, on Wednesday, had to decide whether to allow the criminal case against Salvini to go ahead by lifting his immunity or whether proceedings should be halted. At the end of a heated debate, the majority of the senators voted to lift Salvini’s immunity and authorise the trial. The exact numbers of members who voted to authorise the proceedings will be made public later on Wednesday.
Before the vote, Salvini said the decision to prevent the migrants from disembarking was made with fellow members of government and, on Twitter he paraphrased a quote by the poet and fascist sympathiser Ezra Pound: “If a man is not willing to fight for his ideas either his ideas are worth nothing, or he is worth nothing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/matteo-salvini-trial-for-kidnapping-authorised-by-italian-senate
It looks like Salvini is going to play this as "a martyr", "witch-hunt" etc.
