Italy's Salvini furious after Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete released from house arrest

Record ID: 1421884

  • Title: Italy's Salvini furious after Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete released from house arrest
  • Date: 3rd July 2019
  • Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (RECENT - JUNE 29, 2019) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS EMBRACING CREW MEMBERS ON BOARD THE SEA WATCH 3 VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING SEA WATCH 3
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2019 10:10
  • Keywords: Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini Italy migrants Sea-Watch 3 captain Carola Rackete European Union Lampedusa
  • Location: VARIOUS, ITALY
  • City: VARIOUS, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA003AM84VGN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: PART QUALITY AS INCOMING
    Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday (July 2) went on the offensive after a Sicilian court lifted a house arrest order imposed on Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete, who was detained after she brought dozens of African migrants to Italy in defiance of a naval blockade.
    "Maybe the judge drank a glass of wine with the young lady (Sea-Watch 3 Captain Carola Rackete) who said she was rich, white, German and even a little bored and therefore legitimized to not care about the laws of a state," Salvini told his supporters during a Facebook live.
    After receiving threats, Rackete was moved to a secret location after her release, Sea-Watch charity said.
    Salvini continued his angered Facebook live claiming that behind Rackete's release there is "an attempt to erase sovereignty, laws, rights and dignity" and promised to be even more determined to protect Italian borders.
    31-year-old Rackete was released on Tuesday from house arrest where she had been held since Saturday (June 29), when she disobeyed Italian military orders and entered the port of Lampedusa.
    Rackete had faced up to 10 years in prison on possible charges of endangering the lives of four policemen for hitting a patrol boat at the quay as she brought around 40 African migrants to land in the Sea-Watch vessel.
    In a statement released by the charity, Rackete called the decision by Judge Alessandra Vella "a great victory of solidarity towards all migrants, against the criminalisation of those who want to help them."
    Vella ruled that the captain had not broken the law by crashing through a naval blockade, saying that by bringing rescued migrants to port she was carrying out her duty to protect life.
    Salvini's League party last month introduced rules effectively closing Italy's ports to rescue ships, threatening transgressors with fines of up to 50,000 euros ($56,500) and the impounding of their vessels.
    The controversy over Rackete's actions has dented relations between Italy on one side and Germany and France on the other, and highlighted Europe's continued failure to adopt a coherent strategy on immigration.
    An online campaign to help her launched by two German TV stars has so far raised close to 1 million euros, while a separate fundraiser launched on Facebook by an Italian group collected 435,000 euros in seven days.
    (Production: Antonio Denti, Cristiano Corvino, Fabiano Franchitti)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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