Embattled Italian Prime Minister Testifies In Salvini Migrant Case

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte gave witness testimony Thursday in a case against far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who is accused of illegally detaining migrants at sea while interior minister

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jan, 2021 ) :Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte gave witness testimony Thursday in a case against far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who is accused of illegally detaining migrants at sea while interior minister.

Despite a political crisis that threatens his job, Conte appeared before a judge seeking to decide whether Salvini, who is no longer in government, should face trial.

"Prime Minister Conte has been very cooperative, his answers were very detailed," the pre-trial judge, Nunzio Sarpietro, told reporters after a hearing in Rome.

"We are not yet talking about crimes, we are talking about a trial in which we need to ascertain if there is a crime," he said.

Sarpietro travelled from Catania in Sicily for the hearing, which comes in the middle of a political crisis sparked by the prime minister's resignation on Tuesday.

Conte hopes to return at the head of a strengthened coalition government but President Sergio Mattarella remains in talks with party leaders over whether he can secure a majority in parliament.

Salvini is accused of abusing his powers as then-interior minister when he blocked more than 100 migrants from disembarking from the Italian Gregoretti coastguard boat in July 2019.

The leader of the far-right League party formed part of a Conte-led coalition with the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) after 2018 elections, but quit in August 2019.

Salvini's lawyers say the decision to hold the migrants was not his alone, but reached collectively within the government.

"I have protected Italy and Italians," he told reporters in Rome on Thursday.