Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted of illegally blocking migrants on a rescue ship in 2019, after a lengthy and high-profile trial.
Supporters of Mr Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, broke into applause at the verdict in court in Palermo, Sicily.
He had strongly denied charges of abuse of office and the deprivation of liberty of 147 migrants on board the Open Arms charity ship in August 2019, when he was interior minister in a previous government.
Mr Salvini was present to hear the president of the Palermo court, Roberto Murgia, read out a brief statement saying he was acquitted.
The current deputy PM defended himself, saying he acted to protect Italy's borders.
"I have kept my promises, combating mass immigration and reducing departures, landings and deaths at sea," Mr Salvini said on Friday as he arrived in court.
"Whatever the sentence, today is a good day for me because I am proud to have defended my country. I would do everything I did again," he added.
Mr Salvini received backing from far-right allies across Europe this week, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and also from US billionaire Elon Musk,.
The verdict came against a backdrop of tensions between the government and the judiciary over migration, after a court questioned the legality of a flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Albania, in cases now pending with the European Court of Justice.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has recently moved to crack down on migration, striking deals with northern African nations to prevent departures.
What happened?
In 2019, the Spanish-flagged Open Arms boat plucked asylum seekers from the Mediterranean after 19 days at sea, but Italy had refused to allow the charity ship to dock, triggering a humanitarian crisis.
The Open Arms' ship had picked up mainly African migrants off Libya and then asked to dock in an Italian port.
It turned down a request to sail to its home country Spain, saying those on board were too exhausted and needed immediate care.
Mr Salvini had refused to let the ship disembark the migrants it had rescued in the Mediterranean.
The stand-off lasted nearly three weeks and made global headlines, with other EU nations offering to take the migrants, humanitarian groups weighing in and even Hollywood actor Richard Gere visiting the ship in solidarity.
In the end, the migrants were allowed to disembark on the Italian island of Lampedusa following a court order.
The migrants were seen hugging the crew goodbye as they left the ship.
Wires
