A COURT in Sicily was expected last night to announce its verdict on whether Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was guilty of illegally detaining 100 people aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister.

Mr Salvini faces up to six years in jail if convicted on charges of kidnapping for the 2019 incident when he refused to allow the refugees to leave the Open Arms rescue ship at Italy’s southern-most island of Lampedusa.

A sentence of over five years would also automatically bar him from office. 

However, verdicts in Italy are only considered final once all appeals are exhausted, a process that can take years. Mr Salvini has made clear he will not step down.

Now transport minister in Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government, Mr Salvini says he acted to protect Italy’s borders.

During the standoff, some of the refugees threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a safe, close port. The remaining 89 people onboard were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa by a court order.

Mr Salvini took sought to criminalise helping refugees at sea when interior minister from 2018-2019 in the first government of former Premier Giuseppe Conte. 

He refused humanitarian rescue ships permission to dock and accused the groups that carried out search-and-rescue missions of encouraging smugglers.

Mr Salvini has the support of Prime Minister Meloni, other government ministers and anti-immigrant European lawmakers, as well as Elon Musk, the far-right businessman, who expressed his support in a message on the social media platform X.

Since she took power in 2022, Ms Meloni has moved to crack down on migration, striking deals with northern African nations to prevent departures while also setting up centres in Albania aimed at vetting migrants rescued at sea in the non-EU country without allowing them to enter Italy. 

Those centres are not yet operational amid legal challenges.