Maraaz 
Salvini, former Minister of the Interior and leader of the far-right League Party in Italy. Conte testified as a witness in the case where the irregular migrants rescued in the Mediterranean were tried for not allowing them to disembark for days.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was the head of the cabinet at the same time, testified as a witness in the case where Matteo Salvini, former Minister of the Interior and leader of the far-right League Party in Italy, was tried for not allowing irregular migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to disembark for days.
In October 2020, the preliminary court in Catania began in October 2020 against Salvini’s accusation of detaining people for the Italian coast guard ship Gregoretti, which rescued 131 irregular migrants in the Mediterranean in July 2019, when he was serving as minister, do not allow them to dock in the ports of the country and hence disembark. During the hearing, Prime Minister Conte’s statement was taken.
Prime Minister Conte gave his testimony as a witness at his request to Nunzio Sarpietro, the Pre-Trial Judge of the Catania Court, at the prime ministry in Rome, as he is actively serving at the top level in the state. While Conte testified, the plaintiffs’ lawyers and the defendant Salvini and his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno were also present.
The plaintiff’s lawyers stated that Conte made it clear in his statement that the decision to show a safe place to immigration ships at that time belonged to Salvini.
“The prime minister spoke of teamwork. It shows that Salvini’s decision is not an individual decision, but part of a line that Conte has accepted,” said Bongiorno, Salvini’s lawyer. used the expression.
Judge Sarpietro also made a statement to the journalists after hearing Conte and said that the Prime Minister gave in-depth answers to his questions in cooperation with him.
Stating that each minister is individually responsible for the actions in their field, Sarpietro said, “There is no cooperation at this point between the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior. There is a political policy implemented by the Minister of Interior. However, we cannot talk about crimes yet because it is a process to determine whether it is a crime. we are talking about. ” said.
The next hearing of the case will be held in Catania on 19 February.
Gregoretti incident
Salvini, who entered the parliament as a senator in the 2018 general elections in Italy and later served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior in the 1st Conte Government established by the 5 Star Movement and League Party, came to the fore with his anti-immigration policies.
Salvini appeared before a pre-trial judge in Catania on 3 October 2020, on charges of abusing his position and detaining people for not allowing 131 irregular migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to disembark from the Gregoretti coast guard ship for days in July 2019, when he was Minister of the Interior. In the second hearing of this case, the former Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Danilo Toninelli and former Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta finally gave testimony on 12 December 2020.
The far-right populist leader is being tried in another similar case.
In August 2019, when he was also minister, Salvini did not allow 147 migrants rescued by Spanish NGO Open Arms to wait at sea for 19 days and land. As part of the investigation initiated by the Palermo Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Salvini was charged with abuse of power and detaining people, and he appeared before the judge for the first time in this case on January 9.
