Gregoretti, the hearing against Salvini postponed to November 20. The judge will hear Conte and Toninelli

Salvini (Ansa)

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03 October 2020

The preliminary hearing against the former Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, accused of kidnapping and abuse of office, has been postponed until November 20, at the Bicocca prison in Catania.

This was decided by the GUP, Nunzio Sarpietro, at the end of the Council Chamber which lasted more than an hour.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and former ministers Toninelli and Trenta will be heard immediately, on 4 December it will be the turn of Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese.

It is, explains one of the lawyers of the civil parties, of a "preliminary investigation".

The Gup thus accepted the parties' requests.

The hearing concerns Salvini's request for indictment for the management of the disembarkation of the 131 aboard the Gregoretti ship in July 2019. In the courtroom for the former minister, who did not make statements upon entering the Palace of Justice, there was Giulia Bongiorno lawyer, while for the prosecution the deputy prosecutor Andrea Bonomo.

Attorney Massimo Ferrante was also present, representing four of the injured parties identified in the proceedings: a Nigerian couple and their two children aged 10 and 6, who were disembarked after less than 24 hours from the Coast Guard ship.

The Public Prosecutor of Catania has again requested, as it had done in the first phase of the procedure, the filing.

The defense asked for the sentence not to proceed, because the fact does not exist.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Salvini left the Palace of Justice without making any statement.

Her lawyer, the lawyer Bongiorno, went out in a wheelchair due to the injury suffered in the courtroom, announcing a parliamentary question on the state of judicial building in Italy.

"I saw it well, calm, reactive, I guess there is also a nervousness. I think that no one for having done that job could have imagined ending up in court. For people like us, ending up in court is one thing serious. But I found him very combative. "

Thus the leader of the Brothers of Italy

on the impressions she had meeting Matteo Salvini this morning in Catania, just before the preliminary hearing.

"Thanks very much to Giorgia Meloni and Antonio Tajani who this morning in Catania, before the court hearing, brought me their solidarity and the support of the political communities they represent".

Lega leader Matteo Salvini wrote it in a tweet also showing the photo of the three together, this morning for a coffee on the Catania seafront. 

Thanks very much to @GiorgiaMeloni and @Antonio_Tajani who this morning in #Catania, before the court hearing, brought me their solidarity and the support of the political communities they represent.

pic.twitter.com/drJn9BQj6C

- Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) October 3, 2020