Carmelo Zuccaro

Since 2017, several Public Prosecutors have opened investigations against NGOs engaged in sea rescue operations. The charges have ranged from aiding illegal immigration to crimes related to waste disposal. Carmelo Zuccaro, Public Prosecutor of Catania since 2016, has been the first to open an investigation against NGOs in February 2017. On 22 March 2017, the Public Prosecutor Zuccaro and the Deputy Prosecutor Andrea Bonomo were heard by the “Parliamentary Committee for monitoring the implementation of the Schengen Agreement, supervision of the activity of Europol, immigration control and supervision”. The Prosecutors explained their reasons to believe that the NGOs operating in the central Mediterranean sea might be “colluding” with criminal networks (See Italy, "The delegitimization of the NGOs and the Code of Conduct"). To date, all investigations have been dropped. However, these investigations have contributed to a climate of mistrust towards the work of NGOs and have helped legitimize the operations of the Libyan authorities who, since 2017, have been identified as the sole authority delegated to conduct rescues in the Central Mediterranean. In this regard, the High Council of the Magistracy has never distanced itself from the positions taken by these Prosecutors' Offices but rather, with regard to the case opened by Zuccaro in 2017, provided support to the Prosecutor's Office of Catania (See Italy, "udicial Institutions and the criminalization of NGOs")