Captain convicted in migrants’ return
ROME — A court in Naples has convicted the captain of an Italian commercial ship of abandonment-related charges for returning 101 migrants rescued at sea to Libya in 2018, in a ruling praised by human rights organizations.
But the court absolved the captain of the most serious charge — abuse of office — and sentenced him to a year in prison, according to a copy of the sentence and the Avvenire newspaper of the Italian bishops conference.
The U.N. refugee agency and the European Union do not consider Libya a safe port, making the forced return there of refugees, especially unaccompanied minors, a possible violation of their rights to protection and to seek asylum.
The verdict issued Wednesday by Naples judge Maria Luisa Miranda, first reported by Avvenire, was the first of its kind in Italy. It followed a 2012 verdict against Italy by the European Court of Human Rights after Italian military vessels sent back migrants to Tripoli in 2009.
The case before the Naples court concerned the July 30, 2018, rescue of 101 migrants by the Asso Ventotto, an Italian oil rig supply ship that was working for the Mellitah Oil and Gas company, a joint venture of Italy’s ENI and Libya’s National Oil Corp., on the Sabratha oil platform north of Tripoli.
The ship captain, Giuseppe Sotgiu, was absolved of a charge of abuse of office but was convicted of two other charges concerning abandonment of minors and vulnerable people, according to Avvenire and the prosecutors’ request for a conviction.
Another defendant was acquitted of all charges.