Italian court set to issue verdict in Salvini’s kidnapping trial over migrants blocked at sea

ROME (AP) — A court in Sicily is expected to announce its verdict on whether Italy’s vice premier, Matteo Salvini, is guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship when he was interior minister. Salvini faces up to six years in jail if convicted on charges of kidnapping for the 2019 incident when he refused to allow the migrants to leave the Open Arms rescue ship at Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa. A sentence of over five years would also automatically bar him from office, but verdicts in Italy are only considered final once all appeals are exhausted, a process that can take years. Salvini has made clear he will not step down.