Rightwing League party leader, Deputy
Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday called a
Rome tribunal's referral to the European Court of Justice of the
case of seven migrants taken to a controversial new processing
centre in Albania "another political sentence against Italians,"
as he had characterised a previous similar ruling as the work of
allegedly politically motivated judges acting against the
interests of Italians.
"Another political sentence not against the government, but
against Italians and their safety. The government and Parliament
have the right to react to protect citizens, and they will do
so," said the former hardline anti-migrant interior minister.
"Provided that some other magistrate, in the meantime, does not
sentence me to six years in prison for having defended the
borders," Salvcini added, referring to a Palermo trial in which
he is accused of kidnapping 147 migrants by refusing to let them
off a
Spanish NGO run rescue ship in Lampedusa for 19 days five years
ago as part of his controversial closed ports policy.
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