Senate panel votes against Salvini trial

(ANSA) - Rome, February 19 - The Senate's immunity panel on Tuesday voted against granting a request from criminal prosecutors to proceed with charges against Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini over the Diciotti case. Magistrates in the Sicilian city of Catania requested authorization from parliament to proceed against the leader of the anti-migrant League for alleged kidnapping over migrants held on board the Diciotti coast guard ship in a standoff with the EU last August.
    Salvini said the case should not be allowed to proceed as he was doing his job as minister.
    On Monday members of the 5-Star Movement (M5S), the League's coalition partners, voted for the group's lawmakers to vote against lifting Salvini's parliamentary immunity. It went the same way on the Senate panel on Tuesday, with 16 backing the line proposed by panel chair Maurizio Gasparri, while six were against. Some M5S supporters expressed unease about backing immunity for Salvini, saying the movement has traditionally been against MPs getting different treatment in such cases.