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MATTEO SALVINI faces trial on charges of holding migrants at sea after Italy’s senate lifted his immunity from prosecution on Wednesday.
The far-right League Party leader and former interior minister said he wanted to face trial after being accused of illegally keeping 116 people on a boat off the coast of Sicily for nearly a week in August 2019.
League Party senators were instructed not to participate and left the chamber before the upper house voted 152-76 to lift his immunity.
Mr Salvini said that he wanted to “tell the world” that his actions had saved the lives of tens of thousands of people.
“I am absolutely calm and proud of what I have done. And I’ll do it again as soon as I get back into government,” he said.
Mr Salvini compared his case to the impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump, calling political use of “judicial means” a “bad little habit of the left.”
If convicted, Mr Salvini faces up to 15 years in prison.
