The Court of Trapani pronounced a ruling of non-prosecution for all the defendants in the trial Iuventa. The crew members of the NGO vessel Jugend Rettet were under investigation for aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The refusal to proceed had been requested by the Trapani Prosecutor’s Office itself. “A seven-year odyssey. After two years of over 40 preliminary hearings, this case confirms itself as the longest, most expensive and largest proceeding against search and rescue NGOs, an emblematic example of the great efforts made by the authorities to criminalize migration” , they explain from Iuventa.
While “welcoming” the sentence of the Trapani preliminary hearing judge, the Iuventa crew expresses “great disappointment at the irreparable damage inflicted by the investigation and the trial”. And now the crew is already preparing to return to sea: “Despite the serious consequences, the Iuventa case has also become a symbol of support, solidarity and resilience at an international level. The Iuventa crew does not allow itself to be discouraged and declares that it wants resume rescue missions as soon as possible,” he said the German NGO.
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“The result of a flawed and politically motivated investigation – is the accusation – is that thousands of people have died in the Mediterranean or have been forcibly returned to war-torn Libya. In the meantime, our ship was left to rot while we remained entangled in a process that lasted years.”
Read also: NGO, counter-order in the prosecutor’s office: how they save Iuventa (after 7 and a half years)
