The Supreme Court confirms the acquittal of Matteo Salvini in the Open Arms case and rejects the appeal of the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office. The charges of kidnapping and refusal of official documents are definitively dismissed: the sentence is now irrevocable
The final word on the Open Arms case comes from the Supreme Court. The judges of the VI criminal section confirmed the acquittal of Matteo Salvini, making the sentence pronounced by the Palermo court in December 2024 definitive. The “per saltum” appeal presented by the Sicilian Prosecutor’s Office, which had directly challenged the first instance decision in Cassation, was rejected.
The former Minister of the Interior was accused of kidnapping and refusal of official documents in relation to the failure to disembark 147 migrants, including some minors, rescued by the NGO Open Arms in August 2019. With the decision of the Supreme Court, the prosecution case is definitively dismissed.
Acquittal because the fact does not exist
The Palermo court had acquitted Salvini with the full formula “because the fact does not exist”, recognizing that, based on the regulatory framework and the circumstances ascertained, there was no legal obligation to grant the Pos to the Spanish NGO’s ship. A reconstruction that the Supreme Court has now confirmed, definitively closing the proceedings.
The appeal by the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office, presented directly to the Court of Cassation without going through the appeal, aimed to overturn that assessment. But the General Prosecutor’s Office, with the deputy prosecutors Luigi Giordano and Antonietta Picardi, also concluded that the appeal should be rejected.
The defense line: inadmissible appeal
Before the hearing, Salvini’s defense had openly spoken of a “totally inadmissible” appeal. The lawyer Giulia Bongiorno had underlined how the appeal was generic and based on a re-reading of the factual circumstances already assessed by the court. According to the defense, the appeal did not constitute a true “per saltum” judgment, but attempted to reopen a trial already defined on the merits.
Bongiorno had also rejected the parallelism with the Diciotti case, recalling the substantial difference between an Italian Coast Guard ship and a foreign NGO, and recalling the reports which, according to the Palermo ruling, excluded the hypothesis of kidnapping.
Salvini’s post and political solidarity
Five years of trial: defending the borders is not a crime. pic.twitter.com/ufR02hTsu0
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) December 17, 2025
After the Supreme Court’s decision, Salvini entrusted his reaction to a post on In the afternoon he then spoke via video link at the Patriots for Europe summit in Brussels, in the presence of leaders such as Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders.
Unable to participate in person due to institutional commitments and the coincidence with the hearing, Salvini reiterated the political priorities of the League and the Patriots, from security to border defense, up to the request for a diplomatic solution for the war in Ukraine. At the end of the connection, the leaders present gave him a round of applause of solidarity.
With the ruling of the Supreme Court, the Open Arms case definitively leaves the courtrooms. On a political level, it remains one of the symbolic processes of the season of closed ports. On a judicial level, the end word is now written in black and white.
