ROME: Six members of an Italian charity which rescues migrants in the Mediterranean went on trial in Sicily on Tuesday, accused of aiding illegal immigration.
The case centers around the Mare Jonio, a ship operated by Mediterranea Saving Humans (MSH), which took 27 migrants off a giant tanker in 2020 and brought them to Italy.
The migrants had been stranded on the Danish tanker Maersk Etienne for over a month, with both Italy and Malta refusing to accept them.
The defendants include charity’s co-founder Luca Casarini, the ship’s captain and three crew members, including a doctor.
Prosecutors allege the rescue was financially motivated, pointing to a 125,000-euro ($145,000) payment from Maersk to MSH months after the event.
Maersk said in a statement in 2021 that the money had been intended to “cover some of the costs” the rescue charity endured.
“At no point” was financial compensation discussed during the operation, it stressed.
Maersk also praised MSH for coming to the rescue, saying the tanker’s repeated calls for assistance had been ignored by authorities and the situation on board had become “dire from a humanitarian point of view.”
MSH describes the payment as a “transparent donation.”
The defense team says the trial in Ragusa is the first of its kind in Italy.
Previous attempts to prosecute crew members of rescue vessels have all petered out either before or during preliminary hearings.
Defense lawyer Fabio Lanfranca told AFP the team raised a series of technical objections at the first hearing on Tuesday.
These mainly concerned the use of wiretaps of conversations involving “lawyers, journalists, bishops and even members of parliament.”
Fellow lawyer Serena Romano said they also questioned whether providing medical assistance could be defined as criminal.
The next hearing was set for January 13.
The hard-right government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in 2022, vowing to cut the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.
It has repeatedly clashed with rescue charities.
Despite admitting that charity rescue boats pick up only a small minority of arrivals, Rome has characterised them as a “pull factor” and has passed laws which work to reduce the time they spend at sea.
Trial opens for Italian migrant rescuers, a legal first
https://arab.news/rax7t
Trial opens for Italian migrant rescuers, a legal first
- The case centers around the Mare Jonio, a ship operated by Mediterranea Saving Humans (MSH)
- Prosecutors allege the rescue was financially motivated, pointing to a $145,000 payment from Maersk to MSH
Russia jails soldiers who killed pro-Kremlin American
- Court in Russian-held Donetsk found the soldiers guilty of beating Russell Bentley, 64, to death in April 2024, after they mistook him for a US saboteur
- Bentley — who served in the US army in his youth — had been granted Russian nationality and portrayed himself as the only American fighting for Moscow
MOSCOW: A court in Russian-controlled Ukraine sentenced four Russian soldiers to jail on Monday for the killing of an American communist who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014.
Moscow rarely punishes its soldiers in Ukraine for committing crimes, portraying them as national heroes at home.
The court in Russian-held Donetsk found the soldiers guilty of beating Russell Bentley, 64, to death in April 2024, after they mistook him for a US saboteur.
They then put his body in the back of a car and blew it up.
Bentley — known as “Texas” — was a local celebrity in the city of Donetsk, where he lived, and his disappearance sparked outrage.
The self-styled communist often made social media clips backing Moscow’s Ukraine campaign, produced content for Russia’s state-backed media and had fought alongside pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Two of the soldiers — Major Vitaly Vansyatsky and Lt. Andrei Iordanov — were sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony and stripped of their military titles. Sergeant Vladislav Agaltsev was handed 11 years while another soldier was given 1.5 years for “concealing crimes.”
The court said the troops did not know Bentley and detained him as he prepared to film the consequences of a Ukrainian strike, thinking he was a spy.
It said the soldiers “reported to their military unit command on the discovery of a saboteur,” before putting him in a car with a bag on his head, where they “beat and tortured” him to “get a confession” — ultimately killing him.
They then put his body in the trunk and blew up the car, the court said.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine have long been accused by Kyiv and international rights groups of torturing captives.
Bentley — who served in the US army in his youth — had been granted Russian nationality and portrayed himself as the only American fighting for Moscow.
In 2022, he told Newsweek that he had several times been “within seconds or inches of death” but added that: “I believe in guardian angels because of how lucky I’ve been here.”
