Italian trial of German migrant rescuers postponed

A preliminary hearing in the trial in Italy of four German volunteers who rescued migrants at sea has been adjourned until the autumn due to procedural errors.

The public prosecutor's office in Trapani on the Italian island of Sicily had not properly informed the four German citizens about the conclusion of the investigation, lawyer Nicola Canestrini said on Thursday.

This meant that their basic rights were violated, and the judge therefore returned the case to the public prosecutor's office.

The four crew members of the Iuventa ship and 17 other people had to stand trial for aiding the illegal entry of migrants.

They denied the accusations and demanded that the trial should not take place.

Rescuing people in distress at sea cannot be a crime, they say.

The interruption of the preliminary hearing after only a few days further prolonged the proceedings.

"It will not be fair to speed up the proceedings at the expense of the rights of the defendants,'' lawyer Francesca Cancellaro said.

If the case goes to trial, the rescuers could face up to 20 years in prison.

The Iuventa was deployed in the Mediterranean between 2016 and 2017 to rescue migrants at sea.

The public prosecutor's office accused the crew of collaborating with people smugglers, a charge the defendants deny.

"The charges and the evidence against us are weak and made up,'' said Kathrin Schmidt, one of the four Germans.

The defence accused the authorities of illegally wiretapping the ship's bridge and conversations with lawyers and journalists.

The ship was seized in August 2017, Since then, it had been lying idle in Sicily.