Lawyers defending the captain of a vessel that brought in 234 migrants last week and who is charged with entering Malta illegally suspect that the whole case is a witch-hunt.
“We suspect the Maltese government is picking on the Lifeline incident to make a political statement at Brussels level, that borders need to be closed and that Europe will not tolerate NGOs rescuing refugees out at sea,” lawyer Cedric Mifsud said.
The MV Lifeline docked in Malta on Wednesday, and the captain was arraigned in court on charges relating to improper ship registration earlier today. The MV Lifeline was allowed to enter Malta after eight European Union member states, later joined by Norway, agreed to ‘share’ the immigrants. The vessel had been stranded between Malta and Libya for six days, after a dispute between Malta and Libya over who should take in the vessel
After the hearing which took place earlier today, the captain was greeted with cheers outside from activists, holding banners reading “sea rescue is not a crime,” and “rescue ships blocked, more than 400 dead.”
The captain told them: “we did the right thing.”
Defence lawyers Neil Falzon and Cedric Mifsud, who accompanied the captain outside, answered some questions from the media present.
They said that the accused was charged on two charges, that the vessel did not have the valid registration under the Dutch flag, and that the vessel was not used in relation to its registration.
The lawyers said that while the claim is that the vessel did not have valid Dutch registration, the investigating officers did not personally get in touch with the Dutch authorities, but rather used another Maltese authority as a go-between.
The defence kept on insisting that their registration is valid, and said that “we will bring evidence in relation to this.”
Asked about reports that the captain did not follow the orders of Italian authorities, the lawyers said that the Captain is not being prosecuted on that. “Anything said in relation to that, there is no criminal charge on them,” Mifsud said.
“What we hope is that this case is not a symptom of the current Mediterranean climate, where governments are closing the EU’s borders and targeting rescue NGOs for doing the jobs that governments should be doing. We look forward to hearing what the prosecution will bring forward in the coming days and we sincerely hope that this case is not a scape goat for government to pick on NGOs rescuing migrants out at sea.”
Asked who finances Mission Lifeline, the lawyers said that it is an NGO financed through private institutions.
Asked by this newsroom about the registration question, where the Maltese authorities are saying the ship is not registered while the NGO says it has permission from the Watersportverbond, the lawyers said: “there is another authority which issues these type of registration. We have a certificate which we have presented to court. What is interesting is that while the Maltese government and the prosecution say that the vessel does not have a valid registration certificate, they did not even speak to the Dutch authority directly to confirm whether this certificate is valid or not, they just issued the charges.”
The lawyers said they will liaise with their legal colleagues in the Netherlands to provide further legal information on the status of the validity of the certificate for ships to sail out at sea.