Saturday, 16 May – Italy has opened a criminal investigation against the captain of the Sea-Watch 5 with the accusation of “aiding and abetting unauthorized immigration”. The Sea-Watch 5 had entered the port of Brindisi on Friday morning at around 11 a.m. with 166 rescued people on board. The investigation represents an absurd escalation: Days earlier, a patrol boat of the so-called Libyan coastguard had opened fire on the crew and survivors and threatened to hijack the vessel. The last time a criminal investigation was launched against a civil rescue vessel in Italy was in 2020.
Around midday, Italian coastguard officers and police boarded the Sea-Watch 5. They remained on the bridge of the ship until well past midnight, seized documents and equipment, and took two crew members to the station for police questioning. An interrogation of the Sea-Watch 5 captain is also scheduled for today.
Giulia Messmer, spokesperson for the organization Sea-Watch, comments:
“We are outraged. After being threatened with abduction at sea earlier this week by Italy’s Libyan partners, we are now facing a further attack by the Italian government in the form of a criminal investigation. We are familiar with this pattern, and we will not be intimidated by it. We know very well who is actually breaking the law here.”
Italy has repeatedly and deliberately used criminal investigations to target and delegitimise civilian search-and-rescue operations. This was evident, among other cases, in the case of Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete in 2019, or in the Iuventa case, as well as in more than 20 investigations for alleged “aiding and abetting unauthorized immigration”, most of which were dropped even before reaching trial due to lack of legal basis. Experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, have described this practice as a clear attempt to intimidate and to deliberately obstruct civilian search-and-rescue operations.
The Sea-Watch 5 had departed on 06 May for its mission. On Monday, 11 May 2026, it rescued 90 people in distress in international waters, after which an armed patrol boat of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard opened fire on the civilian rescue vessel and threatened to board it and abduct the people on board to Libya.
Sea-Watch subsequently publicly criticised Italy, Germany and the EU for their continued support of these violent militias. During the incident, the unit involved was accompanied by the Murzuq 662, a Bigliani-class vessel transferred by Italy to the so-called Libyan Coast Guard in June 2023 under the EU–Libya cooperation framework SIBMMIL. Later that day, the Sea-Watch 5 was also pursued by the Ras Jadir 648, another vessel that Italy had already transferred to Libyan actors in May 2017, involved in several documented episodes of violence at sea. Since 2016, Sea-Watch and other civil rescue organizations have documented more than 75 acts of extreme violence committed by Libyan militias at sea.
Sea-Watch’s position is firm. The current investigation represents a vicious attack on solidarity at sea. Search and rescue organizations have become inconvenient witnesses to the injustices committed by European governments making them a target for state repression.
