It is an all-out confrontation between the government and the NGOs. New hearing in the trial of the Iuventa crew, who risk up to 20 years in prison for “facilitating illegal immigration”. The NGO ship has been seized in the port of Trapani for over 5 years, since August 2017. Both the Ministry of the Interior and the Prime Minister asked yesterday to be admitted as a civil party in the process.
The express intention is to seek compensation for damages from those who contributed to the rescue of persons in distress at sea. According to the government, the state suffered considerable “economic and moral damage”. But for Iuventa Crew’s head of mission, Kathrin Schmidt, “it is shameful that the Italian government openly claims to have suffered moral and reputational damage as a result of our actions”. The Trapani judges will now have to analyze the government’s request and decide in the next hearings. They also ruled that Iuventa’s defendants must receive additional linguistic assistance at the hearing with an additional interpreter in order to “ensure effective participation in the trial”.
Furthermore, the judge allowed the defense to produce audio recordings that the defense had prudently made during the cross-examination of one of the defendants. “We welcome this decision, because now, finally, the lack of quality of the interpreters appointed by the police and the prosecution will be able to be examined. The same audio evidence will prove that the Public Ministry violated elementary procedural rules, such as correctly citing the defense in minutes”, comments the lawyer for the defendants, lawyer Nicola Canestrini. Amnesty Italia also believes that this is an “important decision, as the right to a correct translation of all parts of the interrogations is one of the foundations of a fair trial”. Finally, four specialists were appointed to prepare transcripts of all interrogations. The hearing was adjourned to January 13.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
