Carola Rackete is free again after four days under house arrest. The decided it Gip of Agrigento, Alessanda Vella, who on Tuesday at eight in the evening he cancelled the arrest of the commander of Sea-Watch 3. Going against the prosecutor's requests, the judge for the preliminary investigations ruled out the crime of resisting and violence against a warship and that of resisting a public official, deeming that the latter was justified by the guilty of having acted in the performance of a duty, to save lives at sea.
The investigating judge also stated that thehe choice of the port of Lampedusa was mandatory, because the ports of Libya and Tunisia were not considered safe ports.
And so the house arrest decided by the prosecutor's office, which had asked for the validation of the restrictive measure and the ban on staying in the province of Agrigento, ceased.
Rackete is therefore free to move as she wishes, but she will have to return to Agrigento on 9 July for questioning before the prosecutors in the other line of inquiry in which she is being investigated for facilitation of illegal immigration. In the meantime, the Sea-Watch 3 has left Lampedusa: escorted by a Finance lookout, she is directed to Licata where she will remain under seizure together with the Ionian Sea of the Mediterranean NGO.
"I am very moved by the solidarity expressed towards me by so many people - said Rackete - And I am relieved by the judge's decision, which I consider a great victory of solidarity towards all migrants and refugees and against the criminalization of those who want to help them".
The Gip's decision sparked the wrath of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, who posted this tweet:
And this post on Facebook: “Disobeying state laws, attacking, ramming, risking killing Italian soldiers is not worth jail time.
And this would be 'justice'?
I'm outraged, I'm disgusted but I won't give up: we will restore honour, pride, well-being, hope and dignity to our Italy, whatever the cost".
Salvini then ordered a measure of expulsion from the national territory with accompaniment to the border for Carola Rackete. The prefecture confirms: "Signed the expulsion measure". But the prefect Dario Caputo specifies that the provision cannot be implemented until Rackete is questioned again by the prosecutors, in the context of the file for aiding and abetting illegal immigration.
"Surprises - comments the deputy prime minister grillino, Luigi Di Maio – the release of Carola. I reiterate my closeness to the Guardia di Finanza in this case. In any case, the issue is the immediate confiscation of the boat. If we confiscate right away next time they can't go back to sea and provoke our country and our laws."
The Sea-Watch lawyers, Alessandro Gamberini, Leonardo Marino and Salvatore Tesoriero, wrote that “the provision of the investigating judge of Agrigento restores the primacy of law over that of force. It was said that Carola Rackete had used force and on this basis her arrest had been arranged: this is not the case. As the investigating judge explains in detail in the provision with which he ordered the non-validation of the arrest, the right was on the side of the commander. The Judge, through the reference to binding international standards, demonstrates the illegitimacy of both the claim to close the ports by the Minister of the Interior, and the final ban on the docking of the Sea-Watch after 15 days of waiting, thus restoring the balance of values and the prevalence of the safety of human life with respect to the arbitrariness of choices made only for propaganda reasons”.
