• Libya.

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December 17, 2020 It was September 1, over a hundred days ago.

For 108 long days, eighteen fishermen - eight Tunisians, six Italians, two Indonesians and two Senegalese - were held in Libya.

They were on board two Mazara del Vallo fishing boats, "Antarctica" and "Medinea", seized by Libyan patrol boats.

The accusation made by the authorities of that country is of having violated the territorial waters, fishing within what they believe to be an area of ​​their relevance, based on a convention that provides for the extension of the EEZ (exclusive economic zone ) from 12 to 74 miles.

In the days following the kidnapping, Haftar's militias have also unfoundedly challenged drug trafficking.

Furthermore, during the negotiations, a request for an 'exchange of prisoners' was made, asking for the extradition of four Libyan footballers sentenced in Italy as smugglers of a crossing in which 49 migrants died. 



A strange case this of the football players-smugglers.

Sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Italian justice, but known in Libya as promising young footballers.

They were sentenced by the Catania Assize Court and then by the Etnean Court of Appeal, accused of having been part of the group of smugglers responsible for the so-called 'Ferragosto Massacre' of 2015 in which 49 migrants died.

The night of the 'Massacre' they would have contributed with "kicks, sticks and straps" to block migrants in the hold of the boat.

During the trial, their affair was monitored by the Libyan embassy in Italy, also participating in some hearings at the Court of Catania.

The four told the judges that they had paid for that trip, reconstructing their version, such as Al Monsiff who said he "played football in Serie A" and "had decided to go to Germany to have a future, impossible in Libya because of the war".

During the trial, the lawyers of the four accused also raised some anomalies in their recognition, which took place through interviews with the 313 survivors of that trip, who arrived in Catania aboard the Siem Pilot on 17 August 2015.



The family members protested several times in Mazara, in square, in front of the house of the Minister of Justice, in Montecitorio, chaining each other, also asking for the intervention of the special forces, and it was considered possible a solution just before Christmas.

Yesterday the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, assured that the Italian government is "doing everything" to bring home the fishermen of Mazara imprisoned by the Libyan authorities: "I have not forgotten our fishermen in Libya in this difficult moment and I mean that we are doing our best and we are continuing to work ".

Until today's turning point: a 'liberating' flight - Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on board - to Benghazi.