Deputy PM will not be tried over refusal to allow 177 asylum seekers to disembark from rescue ship

Italy’s senate has voted to block a criminal case against the far-right deputy prime minister and interior minister, Matteo Salvini, for refusing to allow migrants to disembark from a rescue ship.

In January, an Italian court ruled that Salvini should be tried for the kidnapping of 177 asylum seekers he prevented from disembarking the Italian coastguard ship Ubaldo Diciotti in August last year.

On Wednesday, members of the house had to decide whether Salvini would stand trial or proceedings be halted. Two hundred and 32 senators voted to defend Salvini’s parliamentary immunity.

Sicilian prosecutors will, therefore, not be able to try him. Magistrates needed the backing of parliament to continue investigations against Salvini, who also leads the far-right League party.

In February, Salvini sought immunity, arguing that he acted in the interests of Italians when he stopped the 177 passengers, mostly from Eritrea, from landing in Catania. He had previously said he was ready to be tried and proud of “having defended the country from illegal immigrants”.

“After reflecting on the whole affair, I believe the authorisation to try me must be denied,” he wrote in a letter to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “I would do it all again. And I won’t give up,” he wrote, but added that “the judges should be denied authorisation”.

Those onboard the Diciotti were stranded at sea for five days amid an EU standoff with the Catholic church. Ireland and Albania offered to take them in. Salvini’s coalition partner, Luigi Di Maio, who heads the Five Star Movement (M5S), supported his actions, arguing that the decision was taken by the whole government.

The investigation posed a political risk to Italy’s governing coalition as well as a personal risk to Salvini. One of the founding principles of the M5S is that politicians under investigation should be asked to resign. Until two years ago, this principle was written into M5S’s statutes as part of an attempt to distance itself from corruption in Italian politics, and Wednesday’s vote has caused rifts within the movement.

M5S initially seemed willing to vote in favour of a trial but, after the publication of Salvini’s letter, Di Maio, theM5S deputy prime minister, filed a document with the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, formally defending him. “If Salvini is responsible for the seizure [of the migrant boat] then the whole government is responsible,” the document said.

Eventually, in February, the party turned to its online platform Rousseau to ask members to vote on the issue, a move that resulted in 59% supporting Salvini but which was criticised by some M5S politicians.

“I’m not that kind of minister who doesn’t lift a finger if someone is dying at sea,” Salvini said in a statement before the senate vote.

A few hours before the vote, Italian authorities ordered the seizure of a charity rescue ship after it defied the government’s order not to bring refugees and migrants to Italy.

Volunteers onboard the Mare Jonio rescued about 50 people from a rubber boat off the coast of Libya, prompting Salvini to say he was ready to stop private vessels “once and for all” from bringing rescued people to Italy.

Salvini has repeatedly declared Italian waters closed to NGO rescue vessels and has left several of them stranded at sea in an attempt to force the rest of Europe to take in more asylum seekers.

On Tuesday, at least 12 people went missing off the coast of Sabratha in Libya after a boat capsized, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Fifteen survivors were rescued and returned to Libya, where they received medical treatment. Those injured were in a critical condition, the IOM said.

So far in 2019, 234 people have died in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM.