A second judge in Catania on Sunday
night freed migrants striking down a recent government decree
amid a row over the alleged bias of the first judge in the
Sicilian city to do so last week.
Judge Rosario Cupri did not uphold the detention of six Tunisian
asylum seekers in a pre-removal centre (CPR) at Pozzallo, as his
colleague Iolanda Apostolico had done regarding four Tunisians
on September 29.
Like Apostolico, Cupri reportedly ruled that new detention norms
were against the Italian Constitution and international
conventions.
Apostolico has been attacked by government parties as allegedly
biased after a police video emerged of her taking part in a
demonstration in 2018 calling for migrants to be left off a
Coast Guard ship after then interior minister Matteo Salvini had
refused them the right to land in a controversial closed-ports
policy for which he is currently on trial in Palermo.
A second video has reportedly emerged showing Apostolico taking
a more active part in the demo than shown in the first one.
Salvini's League party have called for Apostolico to be sacked
highlighting that the protesters were recorded called Salvini
and others "murderers" and "animals".
Apostolico says she acted as a "peacekeeper" to calm down the
protesters.
On Monday Catania Chief Prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said
Apostolico's 'media lynching" had been "deplorable", as all such
trials by media were.
photo: Apostolico in the 2018 video
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