By Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) – An Italian Senate committee voted on Tuesday to block an investigation into accusations of kidnapping against Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini over his decision to hold 150 migrants on board a ship for five days last August. The committee voted 16 to 6 to stop the investigation into Salvini, who is also interior minister and the leader of the hard-right League party which rules in a coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The case has sown division within the government and in particular within 5-Star, which has built its support on pledges to bring transparency to Italian politics and has harshly criticised past parliamentary manoeuvring to halt judicial proceedings against lawmakers. Prosecutors in Sicily have sought permission to investigate Salvini for abuse of power and kidnapping over the case of migrants held on board the Diciotti coast guard ship. When Salvini took office in June of last year, he blocked humanitarian ships carrying rescued migrants from Italy’s ports and said he would allow migrants on shore only if other European partners agreed to take them. In the case of the Diciotti, migrants rescued at sea were allowed to disembark when Albania and Ireland offered to accept some of them and Italy’s Catholic Church agreed to take responsibility for the rest at no cost to the taxpayer. The 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio held an online ballot of the movement’s core supporters on Monday and 59 percent voted to protect Salvini. The movement’s senators on… [Read full story]
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