Italy's Salvini sent to trial on migrant kidnapping charge

FILE PHOTO: Leader of Italy's far-right League party Matteo Salvini speaks to the media after consultations between President Sergio Mattarella and political parties to try to find the basis for a new government, in Rome, Italy, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

An Italian judge on Saturday ordered that Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, must stand trial on charges of kidnapping over his decision to prevent more than 100 migrants from landing in the country in 2019.

Salvini, who was interior minister at that time, left the migrants stranded at sea until prosecutors ordered the seizure of the ship and the evacuation of the people on board.

The trial will begin in the Sicilian capital of Palermo on September 15.

(Reporting by Wladimiro Pantaleone, writing by Gavin Jones)