They were not smugglers working for criminal organizations, but migrants forced to pilot the boat to save their lives. The first-degree trial in Naples against four refugees from Sudan and Chad, who arrived in Italy in July 2024 and were charged with aiding and abetting irregular immigration, concluded with four acquittals.
According to the prosecution, the four were identified as the "captains" of the two boats with a total of 55 people on board, rescued in the central Mediterranean by the humanitarian vessel Ocean Viking.
As soon as they landed in the port of Naples, they were stopped and transferred to prison, where they remained in pre-trial detention for over 17 months, until the Neapolitan judge issued an acquittal.
In its ruling, the court recognized the existence of a "state of necessity," holding that the four defendants' conduct was dictated by the urgency of saving their own lives and those of the other migrants on board, and not by the intent to profit from the irregular border crossing.
For lawyers Tatiana Montella and Martina Stefanile, members of the defense team, the decision represents "an important victory." "On the one hand," they explain, "it undermines the paradigm, all too often applied in courts, that equates the captain with the person who organizes and profits from the crossings, recognizing instead the conditions of necessity that characterize the journey of every fleeing migrant.
On the other hand, it clearly states that the captains are nothing other than migrants exercising their freedom of movement and recognizes the supremacy of the legal right of "life and freedom of movement" over the mere protection of borders.
A network of organizations committed to protecting migrants' rights also commented on the ruling: ASGI Campania, the Immigration and Citizenship Legal Clinic of Rome, the Legal Clinic of the University of Parma, and Mediterranea Saving Humans.
In a joint statement, they recall how the four refugees had already endured a journey marked by violence and deprivation: "Detained in Sudan because they refused to enlist as child soldiers, detained and tortured in Libya, they crossed the Mediterranean Sea and, after surviving what is a place of death for so many refugees, once they reached Italy they knew only Poggioreale prison."
According to the organizations, the charge of aiding and abetting irregular immigration has been used in recent years as a "crowbar to repress the migration phenomenon," resulting in over 1300 inmates in Italian prisons, "the result of the repression of freedom of movement" and "repressive and criminalizing policies."
The note speaks of "investigations riddled with flaws, often the result of an accusatory paradigm whereby those who lead lose their own individual path and become instruments and scapegoats for criminal border policies."
An approach, they denounce, that has transformed criminal law into an "interpretative mask" capable of obscuring the structural causes of migration. "The recognition of the state of necessity in this judicial case," they argue, "represents a turning point in overcoming the use of this crime to attack freedom: the freedom to choose one's own destiny and the freedom of movement."
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Comments (1)
I read the article and it seems to me to be a very complex topic, but there are many things that don't add up. It's right to acquit people who make desperate decisions to save themselves, but at the same time, we mustn't forget the law. This is a delicate issue.