A controversial court case in Palermo gets a touch of Hollywood, at least in a supporting role. Film star Richard Gere, 72 years old, known for example from “Pretty Woman” and “An Officer and a Gentleman”, has been admitted as a witness in the trial against Matteo Salvini in the case Open arms. Italy’s former interior minister and head of the right-wing populist party Lega is accused of abusing his office in August 2019 when he failed to land a ship of the Catalan NGO Proactiva Open Arms with 147 refugees on board in an Italian port for 19 days. The charge is deprivation of liberty. If convicted, Salvini faces up to 15 years in prison.
In that politically turbulent Italian summer that was to end in Salvini’s fall, Gere was on vacation with his family in Italy. “Near Rome,” the committed actor once said. He heard of the blockade of the Open Arms off Lampedusa, contacted the sea rescuers, then flew down to the island, bought fruit and mineral water for the passengers and went on board to help. Open Arms proposed Gere as a witness so that he could report firsthand about the dramatic conditions. Some refugees jumped overboard out of desperation, others had to be brought from the ship as medical emergencies.
The Palermo’s public prosecutor would now have preferred if Open Arms had dispensed with the witness Gere: His summons only unnecessarily transformed the proceedings into a “spectacle”, it said. But the court admitted all witnesses from both sides. In addition to Gere and some refugees, Italy’s former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the incumbent Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese as well as Malta’s former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will testify in the process.
Salvini’s defense tried again, as in other cases, to transfer responsibility to the entire government: the line of “closed ports” with which the interior minister had made himself world famous was supported by all partners in the cabinet. He is personally proud that he has defended the country. Italy, says Salvini, was also not responsible for them at all Open arms: The Spanish ship with its Spanish home port could have simply continued to Spain. Nobody prevented the crew from doing so, and that is why the allegation of deprivation of liberty against him is wrong.
Before the first trial began, Salvini posted a photo on Twitter from the court hall in the Pagliarelli prison in Palermo, including bars: “The left and the friends of illegal immigration want this process: How much will it cost the Italians?” And after the prominent witness was admitted, he said into the cameras and microphones of the waiting reporters: “Tell me: How serious is a trial in which Richard Gere comes from Hollywood to say that I am angry?” The spectacle has already started, even without the movie star.