Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Agrigento on Wednesday filed an appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation against a judge's decision not to keep Sea-Watch3 captain Carola Rackete under house arrest, sources said. The 31-year-old woman from Germany allegedly hit a finance police vessel as she defied a ban in order to land 40 migrants on the island of Lampedusa, saying she was afraid some might commit suicide after being at sea for 17 days following a rescue off Libya.
Days later a judge in Agrigento rejected a request from prosecutors to keep her under house arrest. She said she could not avoid the finance police vessel and had not rammed it deliberately.
Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has brought in a tough policy of closing Italy's ports to NGO-run search-and-rescue ships, blasted the decision to free her.
The captain has become a hero to those opposed to Salvini's policy and a villain to those who support it.
The Sea-Watch3 is run by the German migrant rescue NGO Sea-Watch and flies a Dutch flag.
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