Put me on trial, defiant Salvini says in Italian migrant boat case

POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

During his 14 months at the interior ministry, Salvini made tackling migrant boats a priority, barring ports to rescue ships and threatening the charities operating them with fines.

In July, two weeks before he abandoned a coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, he refused to let migrants disembark from the Gregoretti coastguard vessel, ignoring pleas from human rights groups to let the group come ashore.

Magistrates in Sicily say this was an abuse of power and amounted to de facto kidnapping. But under Italian law, former ministers cannot be tried for actions undertaken while in office unless parliament authorises the investigation.

Senior League politician Giulia Bongiorno, who is an experienced lawyer, has publicly urged Salvini to fight to maintain his immunity, warning a trial could backfire on him.

In the Senate (upper house) on Wednesday she said parliament should not accept the court request as this would undermine political independence. "Senator Salvini, your destiny is at stake, but also the autonomy of political power," she said.

The Gregoretti investigation echoes another case from earlier last year when magistrates sought to try Salvini over his decision to keep 150 migrants aboard a coastguard ship for five days in August 2018.

On that occasion, parliament blocked the request, with 5-Star rallying to his support, arguing that the decision to keep the migrants at sea was a collective one. This time, his one-time allies say he acted unilaterally without prior assent.