Overview
- The Interior, Transport and Economy ministries and the Agrigento Prefecture must pay €76,181.62 plus legal interest and €14,103 in fees to Sea-Watch.
- The award covers documented costs from July 12 to December 19, 2019 in Lampedusa, when Sea-Watch 3 was held following Captain Carola Rackete’s June 2019 entry to disembark rescued migrants.
- The tribunal cited silence-assent rules after the prefecture did not respond to Sea-Watch’s opposition, rendering the continued seizure illegitimate; the court had already ordered the ship’s return on December 19, 2019.
- Compensation is limited to patrimonial expenses such as port and agency fees, fuel and maintenance, with no damages for reputation, and interest accrues from October 2019 until payment.
- Sea-Watch welcomed the ruling as a vindication of civil disobedience, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy PM Matteo Salvini condemned it as rewarding unlawful conduct.