Matteo Salvini
"protected the national interest and acted in line with the government policy reaffirmed today by Giuseppe Conte".
This is what the defense of the then Minister of the Interior says after the preliminary hearing in the case of the Gregoretti ship.
This morning the resigning Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte
was heard
who, as the lawyers of the leader of the League still point out, confirmed that he was "a protagonist" in the policy of redistribution before landings ".
But Conte, the plaintiff lawyers say after the hearing in which Conte was heard, as a witness, by the Gip of Catania at Palazzo Chigi, "clarified that the decision on the pos (place of safety) for Gregoretti is it was taken by the then interior minister Matteo Salvini ".
The "choral" of the government's actions "pertained to general policy, the individual events were handled by the individual ministers: minister Salvini first and minister Lamorgese after", declared the
Gup of Catania Nunzio Sarpietro
at the exit of Palazzo Chigi.
"Conte was very collaborative and very profound in his answers", adds Sarpietro.
And again: "There is no collaboration" between the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior, "there is a political policy that the Minister of the Interior carries out", underlines the Gup, who specifies: "We are not yet talking about crimes, we are talking about a process in which it is necessary to ascertain whether there is a crime ".
Salvini's lawyers, meanwhile, say they based themselves on new documents obtained after the previous hearing in Catania.
Documents that - in their opinion - confirm that Salvini operated in line with government policy: the minister opposed while waiting for the redistribution of migrants.
A practice, remember the lawyers, also continued with the 'Giallorossi' government.
During the deposition of Conte, the lawyers highlighted another aspect: the premier had written to Salvini to request the disembarkation of minors on board the Open Arms (an episode following Gregoretti, but consumed in the last days of 'Conte Uno') without mention to adults and without having ever taken similar initiatives before.
"The umpteenth demonstration - according to the defense of the former Minister of the Interior - of the full awareness and sharing of the government".
To this, we would add an open letter from Conte, remembered during the hearing by the lawyer
Giulia Bongiorno
, who implicitly reiterated in the Corriere della Sera that she never wanted to disembark adult migrants.
"We are satisfied - declares Bongiorno - because Conte reiterated what Salvini said. With the Conte I government there was a change of line on immigration and it was established that the redistribution of migrants would be decided before the landings. The premier spoke. of team play and that of Salvini was therefore not the wicked choice of a single minister but a line that Conte shared ", observes the lawyer and former minister in the Conte-Salvini government.
Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is accused of kidnapping for delaying the disembarkation of 131 migrants from the Gregoretti ship in July 2019.
