The Italian Senate has voted to allow the prosecution of right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini for forcing migrants to stay on board a rescue ship when he was interior minister.
By a wide margin, Mr Salvini’s fellow senators voted to lift his immunity as a politician so Italy’s Tribunal of Ministers can decide if he effectively held 131 migrants hostage aboard an Italian coastguard vessel in July 2019.
The vote on Wednesday fell 84 short of the number needed to overturn a Senate commission’s vote last month to lift the immunity.
With Mr Salvini insisting he would be proud to stand trial for what he said was his defence of Italy’s borders, senators from his anti-migrant League skipped the vote.
