Alarm raised over threats against Open Arms prosecutors

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 19 - The three Palermo prosecutors who have requested a six-year prison term for former interior minister and current Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini on charges of kidnapping and refusal to perform official acts in the Open Arms case have received thousands of messages of insults and threats via social media as well as heavily intimidatory letters, prompting the State attorney general of the Sicilian city, Lia Saba, to raise the alarm with the provincial committee for public order and security, judicial sources said Thursday.
    The State attorneys Marzia Sabella, Gery Ferrara and Giorgia Righi, who on September 14 requested the six-year prison term for Salvini on abduction charges for having prevented, five years ago, the disembarkation from the Spanish NGO rescue chip Open Arms of 147 migrants in Lampedusa, did not comment.
    The indictment in the trial against Salvini over his refusal, as part of his closed ports policy, to let the migrants disembark has sparked a political row and a virulent campaign on social media with death threats and sexist insults against the female prosecutors whose photos were included in a number of posts.
    Members of the State attorneys' families have also received threats and anonymous letters were sent to the State attorney's office as part of episodes reported by the prosecutor general of Palermo to the Committee for public order and security, the prefecture's agency in charge of security measures.
    The posts and threats were also sent to State attorneys in Caltanissetta in charge of investigating cases involving magistrates in Palermo. (ANSA).