"The indication of the Pos, safe harbor, was up to Spain or Malta (and certainly not Italy). The captain of the ship deliberately refused the Pos indicated subsequently by Madrid, losing precious time for the sole purpose of disembarking immigrants in Sicily as it had already done in March 2018 obtaining a trial for private violence and aiding illegal immigration ". These are some of the most significant passages of the memory that Matteo Salvini deposited with the Immunity Board on the Open Arms case.
"Italy had no competence and no obligation with reference to all the bailouts made by the Spanish ship Open Arms" which took place "outside areas of its relevance", the defense said. "The exchange of correspondence between Valletta and Madrid in the first days of August 2019 demonstrates this." It is certainly the flag state of the ship that provided the rescue - observes Salvini - which must indicate the Pos in the cases of operations carried out independently by NGO ships ".
