ROME: The German captain of a migrant rescue ship will sue Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for defamation, her lawyer said on Friday, intensifying the battle of wills between the charity worker and the far-right leader.
Carola Rackete, 31, was freed from house arrest on Tuesday after a judge dismissed accusations she had endangered the lives of Italian servicemen by ignoring military orders and bringing a boatload of migrants to the port of Lampedusa.
Salvini has repeatedly denounced Rackete, calling her a “pirate” and an “outlaw,” and promising to expel her from Italy.
Rackete’s lawyer Alessandro Gamberini said a lawsuit had been drawn up. “We have already prepared the case against minister Salvini,” he told Radio Cusano Campus, accusing the minister of stirring up hatred.
Rackete, who sports long, distinctive dreadlocks, has been targeted by Internet trolls, with threats of rape and death thrown her way on social media. She is currently in hiding.
“A defamation case is a way of sending a signal. When people get hit in the wallet they understand that they cannot insult people gratuitously,” he added, referring to the eventual fines that might be inflicted on Salvini if he loses the case.
Salvini, who heads the far-right coalition League party and also serves as deputy prime minister, appeared to relish the prospect of a court encounter.
“She breaks laws and attacks Italian military ships, and then sues me. Mobsters don’t frighten me, let alone a rich and spoiled German communist!” he wrote on Twitter.
Rackete herself still faces possible charges of aiding illegal immigration and resisting public officials and faces questioning in Sicily by magistrates next week. Her Sea-Watch 3 boat has been impounded as the investigation continues.
Since taking office a year ago, Salvini has introduced a battery of anti-migrant measures, leading to a sharp decline in new arrivals and a precipitous fall in charity ships operating off the coast of Libya in search of flimsy migrant boats.
Salvini said on Friday that another German charity ship, the Alan Kurdi, had picked up 65 people off the coast of Libya and warned it not to try to come to Italy.
“The boat can sail to Tunisia or Germany,” he said in a statement, adding that nearby Malta supported his stance.
Earlier on Friday, Malta said it would take in 54 migrants rescued by an Italian charity boat off Libya this week, as part of a migrant swap with Rome.
The two countries have repeatedly clashed over who should receive migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, but both have also criticized their European Union partners for failing to take in more of the newcomers.
“Our two countries have been suffering the indifference and failings of the European Union for years,” Salvini said.
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German rescue captain to sue Italy’s Salvini over migrant comments
German rescue captain to sue Italy’s Salvini over migrant comments
- Salvini has repeatedly denounced Rackete, calling her a pirate and an outlaw, and promising to expel her from Italy
- Rackete was freed after a judge dismissed accusations she had endangered the lives of Italian servicemen by ignoring military orders and bringing migrants to Lampedusa
UN urges Rwanda to leave eastern Congo and extends peacekeeping mission for a year
KINSHASA: The UN Security Council has urged Rwanda to withdraw its forces from eastern Congo and extended the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, for a year, as fighting in the region escalated despite a US-mediated peace deal.
The UN’s most powerful body on Friday condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the peacekeepers’ mandate, keeping about 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.
The resolution comes as M23 claimed Wednesday to have withdrawn from Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo it seized last week, after pressure from the US Congo’s government said the withdrawal was “staged” and that the rebels were still in the city.
US deputy ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the Security Council on Friday that M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) away from Uvira.
M23 took control of the city last week in a deadly offensive that came despite a US-mediated peace agreement signed earlier this month by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington.
The accord didn’t include the rebel group, which is negotiating separately with Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating. However, the accord obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups like M23 and work to end hostilities.
Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to around 6,500 fighters, according to the UN
More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23. The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the UN agency for refugees.
The MONUSCO force arrived in Congo in 2010, after taking over from an earlier UN peacekeeping mission to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel and to support the Congolese government in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.
However, frustrated Congolese have said that no one is protecting them from rebel attacks, leading to protests against the UN mission and others that have at times turned deadly.
In 2023, at Congo’s request, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to draw down the peacekeeping force and gradually hand over its security responsibilities to Congo’s government.
The UN’s most powerful body on Friday condemned an offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23, demanded Rwanda stop supporting the rebels and withdraw its troops. The Security Council also renewed the peacekeepers’ mandate, keeping about 11,500 military personnel in the country, in a unanimously adopted resolution.
The resolution comes as M23 claimed Wednesday to have withdrawn from Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo it seized last week, after pressure from the US Congo’s government said the withdrawal was “staged” and that the rebels were still in the city.
US deputy ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the Security Council on Friday that M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) away from Uvira.
M23 took control of the city last week in a deadly offensive that came despite a US-mediated peace agreement signed earlier this month by the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in Washington.
The accord didn’t include the rebel group, which is negotiating separately with Congo and agreed earlier this year to a ceasefire that both sides accuse the other of violating. However, the accord obliges Rwanda to halt support for armed groups like M23 and work to end hostilities.
Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which has grown from hundreds of members in 2021 to around 6,500 fighters, according to the UN
More than 100 armed groups are vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda, most prominently M23. The conflict has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced, according to the UN agency for refugees.
The MONUSCO force arrived in Congo in 2010, after taking over from an earlier UN peacekeeping mission to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel and to support the Congolese government in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.
However, frustrated Congolese have said that no one is protecting them from rebel attacks, leading to protests against the UN mission and others that have at times turned deadly.
In 2023, at Congo’s request, the UN Security Council voted unanimously to draw down the peacekeeping force and gradually hand over its security responsibilities to Congo’s government.
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