Migrant rescue ship captain who was arrested in Italy sues Matteo Salvini for defamation following string of insults from the far-right minister (who replies by calling her a ‘rich, spoiled communist’)
- Carola Rackete is accusing Matteo Salvini of ‘stirring the troubled waters of hate’
- She was arrested for forcing the migrant ship into port after a two-week standoff
- Salvini had branded her a ‘criminal’ and reacted angrily when she was released
The captain of a migrant rescue ship who was arrested at an Italian port last week will sue the country’s hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini for defamation after a string of insults.
Carola Rackete is accusing Salvini of ‘stirring the troubled waters of hate’ after he called her a ‘criminal’ and a ‘pain in the a***’ in a row over the migrant ship Sea-Watch 3.
However, an unperturbed Salvini immediately hit back by calling her a ‘rich and spoiled communist’.
‘She breaks laws and attacks Italian military vessels, and then she sues me,’ the anti-migrant Salvini said.
Carola Rackete (pictured), the captain of the rescue ship Sea Watch 3, leaves a police boat in Italy earlier this week after she was arrested for forcing the vessel into an Italian port
Sea Watch 3 captain Rackete is taking legal action against hardline government minister Matteo Salvini (pictured in Milan last month)
Rackete’s lawyer Alessandro Gamberini told Italian radio: ‘We have prepared the legal complaint against minister Salvini.
‘It’s not easy to make a complete list of all the insults Salvini has made these last weeks.’
The row erupted over Rackete’s ship, Sea-Watch 3, which was carrying 40 migrants but was refused entry to Italy.
After a two-week stand-off, Rackete forced her way into port on the island of Lampedusa, hitting a police speedboat on the way.
Rackete was arrested but this week she was freed by an Italian judge as she had been acting to save lives – a decision that also drew Salvini’s ire.
During and after the two-week standoff Salvini launched a series of furious tweets at the 31-year-old Rackete, including calling her a ‘pain in the a***’, ‘criminal’, ‘delinquent’ and ‘poor woman who only tried to kill five Italian soldiers.’
Rackete forced the Sea-Watch 3 (pictured) into port in Lampedusa, hitting a police speedboat on her way
Italian policemen stand next to migrants after they disembarked from the Sea-Watch 3 rescue ship in Lampedusa
Reacting furiously to her release, he vowed to stop further rescue vessels ‘one by one’ and labelled her a ‘danger to national security’.
Two other investigations, on charges of helping people smugglers and resisting the authorities are still underway after she forced her way past Italian customs vessels.
Sea-Watch, a German charity, said earlier this week that Rackete had been ‘abandoned by all of Europe’.
‘Carola did her duty and was abandoned by all European countries and international organisations,’ Sea-Watch’s Italian representative Giorgia Linardi said in Rome.
‘The captain, as is her duty, and having been helped by none of the authorities contacted, with shipwreck survivors on board, headed for the closest safe port,’ said Linardi.
The charity said that she had subsequently gone into hiding pending her next court appearance because of ‘numerous threats’.
The migrants were allowed to disembark at Lampedusa and taken to a reception centre, as they prepared to travel on to several other EU member states which have agreed to take them in.