Dec. 20, 2024 13:57 PM EST

Italian Court Clears Vice Premier Salvini Of Illegally Detaining Migrants On A Rescue Ship In 2019

Former Interior minister Matteo Salvini leaves the Senate prior to a vote on lifting his immunity for a trial on Aug 2019 Open Arms case, in Rome Thursday, July 30, 2020. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP, File) Mauro Scrobogna, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Interior minister Matteo Salvini leaves the Senate prior to a vote on lifting his immunity for a trial on Aug 2019 Open Arms case, in Rome Thursday, July 30, 2020. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP, File)
Italy's deputy premier, Matteo Salvini, shakes hands with a police upon his arrival at the Palermo's court Friday Dec. 20, 2024 as he awaits a verdict for preventing some 100 migrants from disembarking a rescue boat in 2019 when he was interior minister. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
Italy’s vice premier, Matteo Salvini arrives at a court in Sicily that is expected to announce its verdict on whether Salvini is guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister, in Palermo, Italy, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)
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ROME (AP) — A court in Sicily Friday found Vice Premier Matteo Salvini not guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister.

The court dropped all the charges against Salvini in relation an incident in 2019, when he refused to allow the migrants to leave the Open Arms rescue ship at Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa.

Verdicts in Italy are only considered final once all appeals are exhausted, a process that can take years.

Now transport minister in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government, Salvini has always defended himself, saying he acted to protect Italy’s borders.

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