AGRIGENTO — The German captain of a charity rescue ship appeared before a court in Sicily on Monday after she was arrested for forcing her way into an Italian port carrying migrants she had rescued off the Libyan coast. Chief prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio called on the court to lift the house arrest and instead ban her from both Agrigento and the nearby island of Lampedusa. Rackete, a volunteer for German charity Sea-Watch, has become a symbol of divisions in Italy over the government’s policy of closing ports to non-government (NGO) rescue ships. Germany called on Monday for her release, but Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an EU meeting that it was an independent judicial matter. He has said that if the court decides to release Rackete, he would sign an expulsion order straightaway.

Source: National Post July 01, 2019 17:03 UTC