A court in Sicily Friday found Italian Vice Premier Matteo Salvini not guilty of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard a humanitarian rescue ship iin 2019 when he was interior minister.

The three-judge panel acquitted Salvini, then Italy’s interior minister, of the crimes of abduction and dereliction of duty in connection with the 19-day stand-off with the vessel Open Arms. Prosecutors had sought a six-year prison term for Salvini — the leader of the far-right League party — a demand that sparked fierce condemnation by rightwing leaders in Italy,

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was found not guilty in a criminal kidnapping case dating back to August 2019, when he barred a migrant vessel from docking in the country, leaving it stranded offshore.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted in the trial over the treatment of migrants in the Mediterranean. The verdict was announced by a court in Palermo, Sicily on Friday. The head of the right-wing governing League party was accused of preventing a ship belonging to an aid organization with refugees on board from entering an Italian port for several weeks during his time as interior minister in 2019.