The head of the mission, the doctor on board and the master of the Mediterranea Saving Humans’ ship yesterday denounced the so-called Libyan coastguard for the attack suffered by the shipwrecked people and the crew of the MARE JONIO on 4th April in international waters.
On that occasion, the Libyan patrol boat 658 Fezzan, donated by the Italian government to the Tripoli authorities in 2018, had attacked the scene of the rescue of a boat with 45 people in distress, operated by the MARE JONIO, and the Libyan militiamen had opened fire on the people in the water and the Mediterranea’s rescuers, endangering their safety.
For the first time, a long series of very serious crimes are alleged in the complaint filed with the Rome Prosecutor's Office, as the judicial authority responsible for crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens and property, and with the European Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate the use of funds and resources granted by the EU institutions and the Italian governments to the Libyan militias.
Based on an accurate reconstruction of the facts, enriched with new elements compared to those already known (e.g. the identification of the Maltese military plane that led the Libyans in intercepting and detaining migrants at sea), and on the basis of the official reports of various UN bodies documenting the criminal activities of the so-called Libyan coastguard, Mediterranea's lawyers - Serena Romano and Fabio Lanfranca - ask the judicial authorities to investigate those responsible for the attack for the crimes of piracy, attempted kidnapping, torture and violence, aggravated by the offensive use of firearms and by the complicity of a real criminal organisation, which is constantly involved in the capture and deportation to Libya of people fleeing from that country.
For their information, the text of the complaint was also sent this morning to the Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Accord, Abdulhameed Mohamed Dabaiba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Al Taher Salem Al Baour, and the Minister of the Interior, Imad Mustafa Trabelsi, to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, to Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, also through the Ambassadors of Italy and the EU in Tripoli Nicola Orlando and of Libya in Rome Muhannad Saeed Ahmed Younes.
