Italian Senate lifts immunity of defiant Salvini over migrant boat
ROME: Italian senators voted on Wednesday to lift immunity for far-right leader Matteo Salvini, opening the way for a potentially career-ending trial over accusations that he illegally detained migrants at sea last year.
The result of the vote was due to be formally announced around 1800 GMT but a Reuters tally as the count progressed showed a majority in favor of removing the legal protection that had shielded Salvini as a former cabinet minister.
The decision gives magistrates in Sicily the go-ahead to press charges over his decision to keep more than 100 migrants blocked aboard a coastguard ship for six days last July as he waited for other European Union states to agree to take them in. – Reuters