The Italian court of ministers, upholding a request by the Rome prosecutor's office, on Friday shelved an probe in which former interior minister Matteo Salvini had been under investigation for abuse of office.
The case involved the minister's actions concerning the Alan Kurdi migrant rescue ship run by the Sea Eye NGO in April 2019. The investigation into prefect Matteo Piantedosi, head of the interior minister cabinet, has also been shelved. The German NGO ship had saved 64 migrants onboard a dinghy off Libya. After League leader Salvini refused to allow the ship - which had women and children among the passengers - to dock, on April 13 it arrived on Malta and the migrants were distributed between Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Portugal. Salvini, who was previously also the deputy prime minister, is not in the new government but still leads the right-wing, anti-migrant League. He issued a security decree in July that allows Italy to fine private rescue vessels up to one million euros, seize them, and prosecute their captains if they enter Italian waters without authorization.
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