Italy drops lawsuits against Carola Rackete, captain of Sea Watch 3

It is a victory for the associations of aid to migrants at sea. The court of Agrigento, in Sicily, definitively abandoned the proceedings against Carola Rackete, we learned Thursday, December 23. The captain of Sea-Watch 3 was prosecuted for having forced entry into the port of Lampedusa in June 2019 with 42 migrants rescued off Libya. The then interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refused to allow the humanitarian ship to dock as part of his closed ports policy.

Carola Rackete acted in the fulfillment of the duty of rescue provided for by the international law of the sea

More than two years later, the court ruled that Carola Rackete had done her duty in protecting the people on board her boat, and that Matteo Salvini’s decision was “against the norms”. “Carola Rackete acted in the fulfillment of the duty of rescue provided for by national and international law of the sea”, notes the judge in charge of the Micaela Raimondo case.

According to the latter, “a ship at sea cannot be considered a safe place: in addition to being at the mercy of adverse weather events, it does not allow respect for the fundamental rights of those rescued”. Ditto for Libya, whose ports are not places of safety, because of the living conditions of migrants in the country where “thousands of [personnes] are in arbitrary detention and are subjected to torture, “the judge added, basing herself on a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Matteo Salvini still faces 15 years in prison

In a statement, the captain welcomed this decision, criticizing at the same time the migration policy of the Member States of the European Union (EU). “In our modern history, the most serious human rights violations have not been perpetrated by individuals but by states,” said Carola Rackete. “In recent years the EU and its Member States have spent millions to militarize the border (…) The European border protection agency Frontex is complicit in the forced return of thousands of people who have been victims of serious human rights violations in Libya. Illegal refoulements are perpetrated in Greece, Croatia and Poland, “recalls the activist.

>> To (re) read: Carola Rackete, the captain of the Sea Watch 3 who has become an icon in the defense of migrants

This is not the first time that Carola Rackete has won her case. Last May, the Italian justice rejected a complaint lodged by the Sicilian prosecutor’s office in Agrigento against the captain. She was accused, in the same case, of “violence against a warship” for having attempted a dangerous maneuver against a speedboat of the Italian customs who wanted to prevent her from entering the port.

For his part Matteo Salvini has not finished with justice. The leader of the Italian far-right is accused of kidnapping and abuse of power, and faces up to 15 years in prison. In August 2019, he banned the disembarkation of 147 migrants rescued at sea by the NGO Open Arms and refused for six days to allow him to dock in Lampedusa.