In September, the prosecutor asked for a six-year prison term for Salvini as well as compensation of more than €1 million for damages if the court had found him guilty.
The appeals process following the verdict could still take years.
Salvini repeatedly defended himself, saying he “simply protected the country’s borders,” by preventing the migrants from landing on Italian soil, and that he was doing “what Italians had asked him to do: defending the nation.”
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other members of the government have showed constant support for Salvini over the past few months.
“It is incredible that a Minister of the Italian Republic risks 6 years in prison for having done his job defending the borders of the Nation, as required by the mandate received from the citizens,” Meloni wrote on Sept. 14, on the day the prosecutor requested six years in prison for Salvini.
Following Meloni’s comments, opposition leader Elly Schlein criticized the prime minister for commenting on an ongoing trial. “I found the intervention of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni very inappropriate,” she said. “We think that the executive and judicial powers are separate and autonomous. Therefore, institutional respect would require not commenting on open trials,” she added.
