(AFP) Sea-Watch 3 skipper Carola Rackete faced jail time Saturday after forcing her way into Italy’s Lampedusa port with rescued migrants to end a lengthy standoff with authorities.
Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer told AFP the 31-year-old German captain was seized after bringing the ship into port without authorisation late Friday.
Rackete, described as a “pain in the neck” by Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, was detained for forcing her way past a police boat that tried to block her, a crime punishable by three to 10 years in jail.
She was escorted from her ship and taken away as Salvini slammed what he termed a “criminal act, an act of war,” demanding that she be imprisoned.
