No formal order was imparted
to keep 150 Eritrean migrants aboard the coast guard ship
Diciotti or to allow them to disembark after 10 days,
investigative sources said Monday.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is under investigation for
alleged kidnapping and unlawful detention after not letting the
migrants off the Diciotti until the EU agreed to take them.
The EU refused, and in the end they were taken in by Italian
bishops, Ireland and Albania.
Investigators' reconstruction of the chain of command has
come up against the problem of omission, judicial sources said:
no one apparently stopped the coast guard vessel with clearly
formulated orders.
Furthermore, sources said, no one apparently indicated that
Catania should be the port of landing.
A ministers court in Palermo is trying to establish what
happened and see if Salvini is guilty of aggravated kidnapping,
unlawful detention and abuse of office, among other charges.
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