Salvini had risked six years in jail.

A court in Sicily on Friday acquitted Italy's deputy premier Matteo Salvini of preventing the landing of 147 migrants on the island of Lampedusa five years ago.

Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega party, had been on trial in Palermo since 2021, accused of the kidnapping of migrants on board the rescue ship in August 2019.

He had risked six years in jail on charges of abduction and refusal to perform official duties over his role, as then interior minister, of refusing to grant permission for the ship carrying the rescued migrants to dock.

"Acquitted for stopping mass immigration and defending my country" - Salvini wrote on X on Friday evening - "The Lega wins, common sense wins, Italy wins."

ASSOLTO per aver fermato l’immigrazione di massa e difeso il mio Paese.
Vince la Lega, vince il buonsenso, vince l’Italia. pic.twitter.com/rGf3g85RQ7

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) December 20, 2024

After Salvini refused to grant the ship permission to dock, the migrants were stuck on the Spanish rescue ship Open Arms for 19 days off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Ahead of the court's ruling, Salvini wrote on X: "I have kept my promises, fighting mass immigration and reducing departures, landings and deaths at sea. Whatever the verdict, today is a good day for me because I am proud to have defended my country. I would do everything I have done again."

In September, after prosecutors sought the six-year jail term, Salvini received the "total solidarity" of Italy's right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni who stated on social media: "Transforming the duty to protect the Italian borders from illegal immigration into a crime is a very serious precedent."

Salvini, 51, was also defended by his fellow deputy premier and leader of the centre-right Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, as well as from X owner Elon Musk who commented: "That mad prosecutor should be the one who goes to prison for 6 years."

Salvini insisted that preventing irregular migrants from disembarking in Italy was government policy at the time, claiming that the decision to block the Open Arms ship was reached collectively within the government.

In recent months Salvini has received support from the right-wing Patriots for Europe political group while his Lega supporters around the country have rallied in his defence.

Photo: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com.