MV Lifeline captain’s lawyers suspect court action is a ‘witch hunt’
● Claus-Peter Reisch charged, granted bail
Lawyers defending the captain of the MV Lifeline, a vessel that brought in 234 migrants last week and who is charged with not having a valid registration with the vessel, suspect that the whole case is a witch-hunt.
Yesterday, MV Lifeline Captain Claus-Peter Reisch was arraigned in court after the vessel MV Lifeline was allowed to dock and disembark 234 migrants last week.
The presiding magistrate is Joe Mifsud, with Inspectors Daryl Borg and Mario Haber acting as prosecuting officers, while lawyers Gianluca Cappitta, Neil Falzon and Cedric Mifsud are appearing as defence counsel.
“We suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at Brussels level, that borders need to be closed and that Europe will not tolerate NGOs rescuing refugees out at sea,” the defence lawyers told the press after the court sitting.
Reisch, 57, born in Munich Germany, was charged with, as captain of the vessel Lifeline, entering Maltese territorial waters illegally and without proper registration and a licence.
He was granted bail yesterday on a personal guarantee of €10,000 and had to deposit his passport in court. If convicted, the captain could be jailed.
During the sitting, prosecuting inspector Haber testified, and said that the police were assisted by the Malta Transport Authority, and communications with the Dutch Authorities also took place through said authority. The Dutch, he said, confirmed that the registration is not correct. The lack of direct communication between the inspector and the Dutch Authorities became a bone of contention. In addition, the defence began questioning why the ship was investigated in the first place.
The MV Lifeline was allowed to enter Malta after eight European Union member states, later joined by Norway, agreed to ‘share’ the immigrants. The vessel had been stranded between Malta and Libya for six days, after a dispute between Malta and Libya over who should take in the vessel.
Both Italy and Malta had accused Reisch of disobeying instructions when he refused to take the immigrants back to Libya. The NGO has since argued that doing so would have jeopardised the safety of the immigrants on board, as most had been imprisoned or tortured in Libya.
The NGO’s co-founder Axel Steier stated on Wednesday that they “always respect international law” and said that they have documents, both on the ship and at their offices in Germany, to prove that the claims of the Dutch government in relation to their registration (where the Dutch had formally refuted that the vessel is registered under their flag) are false.
The Lifeline has since been impounded by Maltese authorities and it is expected that the ship will remain in the custody of the authorities until the necessary investigations are completed.
After the sitting, the defence held a brief press conference on the steps of the court. The captain was greeted with cheers outside from activists, holding banners reading “sea rescue is not a crime,” and “rescue ships blocked, more than 400 dead.”
The captain told them: “we did the right thing.”
Defence lawyers Neil Falzon and Cedric Mifsud, addressed the press. The lawyers said that while the claim is that the vessel did not have valid Dutch registration, the investigating officers did not personally get in touch with the Dutch authorities, but rather used another Maltese authority as a go-between. The defence kept on insisting that their registration is valid, and said that, “we will bring evidence in relation to this.”
Asked about reports that the captain did not follow the orders of Italian authorities, the lawyers said that the captain is not being prosecuted on that. “Anything said in relation to that, there is no criminal charge on them,” Mifsud said.
“What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU’s borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing. We look forward to hearing what the prosecution will bring forward in the coming days and we sincerely hope that this case is not a scape goat for government to pick on NGOs rescuing migrants out at sea.”
Asked who finances Mission Lifeline, the lawyers said that it is an NGO financed through private institutions.
Asked by this newsroom about the registration question, where the Maltese authorities are saying the ship is not registered while the NGO says it has permission from the Water sport verbond, the lawyers said: “there is another authority which issues these type of registration. We have a certificate which we have presented to court. What is interesting is that while the Maltese government and the prosecution say that the vessel does not have a valid registration certificate, they did not even speak to the Dutch authority directly to confirm whether this certificate is valid or not, they just issued the charges.”
The lawyers said they will liaise with their legal colleagues in the Netherlands to provide further legal information on the status of the validity of the certificate for ships to sail out at sea.