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| - Italy's far-right leader Matteo Salvini should not be tried for migrant kidnapping, a prosecutor said Saturday, a month before a judge is expected to decide whether to advance the case. Salvini is accused of illegally detaining migrants at sea as then-interior minister when he blocked more than 100 people from disembarking from the Italian Gregoretti coastguard boat in July 2019. His conduct "does not amount to the crime of kidnapping" and "there is no case to answer," prosecutor Andrea Bonomo said in a pre-trial hearing in Catania, Sicily, the ANSA news agency reported. According to Bonomo, the leader of the anti-immigration League party "did not breach any international convention" in his treatment of the migrants, and acted with the support of his government. Pre-trial judge Nunzio Sarpietro is expected to rule on May 14 whether to drop the case or order a trial in which Salvini would face a maximum sentence of 15 years if convicted. "I'm happy because today the public prosecution said there was no crime, no kidnapping... so I calmly return to my children and hope that this will be over on May 14," the politician said after the hearing. The migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean on July 25, 2019, after five days at sea. They were transferred to the Gregoretti the next day, then held on the overcrowded patrol vessel under the fierce summer sun despite a scabies outbreak and a suspected case of tuberculosis. Fifteen unaccompanied minors were eventually allowed off on July 29 following pressure from Catania's juvenile court. The remaining 116 migrants disembarked on July 31 after Salvini said a deal had been brokered with fellow EU countries to take some of them in. The League leader has always defended his hardline stance as a way to force greater burden sharing within the European Union, and discourage more migrants from making the dangerous sea journey from Libya. "We saved lives, we gave a wake up call to Europe, we restored Italy's dignity and security," he said Saturday. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 3,000 migrants have died or gone missing since 2014 while trying to reach Italy or Malta from North Africa. But at the same time, migrants who stay in Libya or are intercepted at sea and returned there are exposed to torture and abuse, according to multiple accounts from human rights groups and UN agencies. Salvini lost the interior minister job in August 2019, after the collapse of the ruling coalition between the League and the formerly anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). After more than a year in opposition, his party is now part of the national unity government led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, installed in February, but Salvini has no ministerial role. The League leader is facing a second migrant abuse case, with ongoing pre-trial hearings in Palermo, over his refusal to allow around 100 migrants held on the Open Arms ship to land in Italy in August 2019. In those proceedings, another prosecutor called last month for Salvini to be sent to trial. The pre-trial judge is expected to decide on the issue in an April 17 hearing. aa/tgb
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