Italian court drops charges against migrant rescue ship crews and ends long-running legal battle

By GIADA ZAMPANO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — An Italian court has dismissed a long-running case against migrant rescue ship crews of three humanitarian organizations. It dropped charges accusing crew members of collaborating with smugglers as they helped rescue thousands of migrants at sea. The judges in the Sicilian city of Trapani decided not to proceed to trial against 10 crew members involved in the case. Staff members from the German nonprofit Jugend Rettet, Save The Children and Doctors Without Borders were fully acquitted from all charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The court on Friday followed the surprise recommendation by prosecutors in February to dismiss all charges in the case, which the organizations slammed for criminalizing their activity in the Mediterranean Sea.