A court in Sicily is expected to announce its verdict on whether Italy’s vice premier, Matteo Salvini, is guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted in a long-running case over his refusal to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Italy in 2019. Judges in the Sicilian city of Palermo cleared him of two counts of kidnap and dereliction of duty, after prosecutors had sought a jail term of six years.

A court in Sicily Friday found Vice Premier Matteo Salvini not guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister

The three-judge panel acquitted Salvini, then Italy’s interior minister, of the crimes of abduction and dereliction of duty in connection with the 19-day stand-off with the vessel Open Arms. Prosecutors had sought a six-year prison term for Salvini — the leader of the far-right League party — a demand that sparked fierce condemnation by rightwing leaders in Italy,

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was found not guilty in a criminal kidnapping case dating back to August 2019, when he barred a migrant vessel from docking in the country, leaving it stranded offshore.