A correct acquittal in a staged trial

All three defendants were acquitted on Wednesday in the trial in the Italian city of Agrigento over the rescue of 37 refugees by the aid organisation Cap Anamur. Michael Brauen expresses his relief in the left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung: "[Cap Anamur chairman] Elias Bierdel and [the ship's captain] Stefan Schmidt have been acquitted: Thus ends a trial that should never have begun. The charges were completely abstruse, casting humanitarian helpers in the role of professional human traffickers so as to be able to prosecute them at all, while the 'evidence' was embarrassingly skimpy. ... If the trial took place at all it's for one reason, and one reason only. It was a political trial. It was meant to demonstrate that the entire force of state repression would come down upon all those who dare to counter Italy's - and Europe's - refugee defence policy with anything more than words alone."

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