When Matteo Salvini spoke to his fans via Facebook video on Friday morning, his world was in order. In the background, the Mediterranean shimmered in front of Liguria, the "Capitano" beamed and sent warm greetings to his sister and the one-year-old nephew, whom he sent a kisses. Then he came to the point.
2000 illegal refugees arrived in Italy this month. More than twice as many as in September 2018, when he was still in government. "Bravo", "applause", blamed the Lega chief, "certainly the Social Democrats, who were with Signora Carola on board, satisfied."
For weeks, Salvini, as Minister of the Interior, led a campaign against Carola Rackete and the aid organization Sea-Watch. Now he returns to his old theme. The reason for this is the arrest of three migrants who apparently were rescued by Rackete in the Mediterranean at the end of June.
The captain not only violated laws and rammed an Italian military ship, Salvini wrote on Twitter, but also brought those migrants to Italy "accused of violence, rape, kidnapping and the slaughter."
In addition he posted photos of left-wing MPs who were aboard the "Sea-Watch-3" and who demanded the admission of all refugees. "We are ready to accuse Rackete and the parliamentarians who wanted the shore leave at any price," says Salvini. "We demand an apology to Italy."
Torture and harassment in a Libyan camp
The three alleged criminals are said to have been arrested by Sicilian security forces on 16 September, reports the newspaper Il Giornale. The 24, 26 and 27 year old men are from Egypt and Guinea. This is what emerges from the arrest warrant of the Palermo Public Prosecutor, which is in the possession of SPIEGEL. Other migrants have told the investigators of constant physical violence that the three men used in a camp in Zawyia, Libya.
According to the prosecution, the three men and others held hundreds of migrants in an illegal camp on the grounds of the former Libyan Zawyia military base to extract money from their families. It had come to systematic atrocities and harassment. Those who could not pay were sold to traffickers and exploited as labor or sexually abused. From torture to manslaughter in the investigation is the speech.
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Sea-Watch now assumes that the three defendants were actually rescued by the Sea Watch 3 from the Mediterranean and later taken to Lampedusa. Carola Rackete did not want to comment on SPIEGEL's request, spokesman Ruben Neugebauer said: "The likelihood that they were on board, is great because on the day in question, apparently no other boat has arrived, we would probably have noticed."
In fact, the arrest warrant leaves little doubt that at least two of the three defendants arrived at the port with the "Sea-Watch-3". Explicitly speaking of the landing of 40 migrants on 29 June, migrants were able to recognize the two accused in photos of the campaign. Another accused had arrived on June 27 in Lampedusa. The people at Sea-Watch think it possible that he had been evacuated from the ship for medical reasons prior to entering the port.
The "Sea-Watch-3" still had 40 migrants on board when it entered the port of Lampedusa on the morning of June 29 against the will of Salvini. In the days before, a total of 13 migrants had been evacuated by the Italian authorities for medical reasons.
Meanwhile, Sea-Watch's sea rescue does not blame itself. The NGO is committed to humanitarian principles, such as the Red Cross, says Neugebauer. "We would have had to rescue the men from distress anyway and would do so again, the Italian Coast Guard would have done the same." Everything else is the responsibility of the authorities. "We think it's good that the three men have now been identified, and now the case can be resolved through a rule of law, which would not have happened in Libya."
Already in the summer it was clear: Some of the rescued came from torture camps
The fact that at least the victims from Libyan torture camps were aboard the "Sea-Watch-3" in June has been clear for some time. SPIEGEL spoke with some of them on 2 July. A man introduced himself as Isaac; In 2017 he fled Ghana, he said. In Libya, he was abducted while working on a construction site. "They wanted money, the first time I had one, the second time," he said. "They tortured me there and stabbed me in the back with a knife." He and the other rescued people said nothing about crimes committed by fellow passengers on the Sea Watch.
Also Carola Rackete reported to the SPIEGEL in early July from the experiences of many Sea-Watch passengers in Libya. The hopelessness on board had "often mixed with post-traumatic stress disorder," said Rackete. "Many have suffered human rights violations, have been tortured, sold, forced to work in slave-like conditions, have experienced sexual violence."
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Apparently, the three accused men were ultimately recognized by refugees who came with the "Alex" to Italy, a ship of the Italian aid organization Mediterranea. Migrants are usually brought to a so-called hotspot after their arrival on Lampedusa, it is the only refugee camp on the island.
New Italian government has reduced the pressure on the rescuers
The debate about criminals who might mix with actual refugees is not new. It is clear that private maritime rescuers can not identify these. For them the message is above all politically unpleasant. Private organizations have been under considerable pressure for a long time, approached in the social media or brought to justice for their work.
Recently, the new Italian government, which now no longer has Matteo Salvini, clearly defused its policy towards the private distressed sea rescue. She quickly landed migrants rescued by the Ocean Viking and, at the Minister of the Interior meeting in Malta, she agreed to open a port and take in a number of the refugees, who are landed by the NGOs.
Salvini points with his posts and the threatened indictment exactly on it. However, the parliamentarians he accused reacted calmly on Thursday. "Dear Matteo, please do it," wrote Social Democrat Matteo Orfini on Facebook to Salvini, against which is being investigated, inter alia, because of a defamation lawsuit by Carola Rackete. "I assure you that I will not allow myself to be protected from immunity as you have done, unlike you I have nothing to fear."