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Italy charges Iuventa activists who saved 14,000 lives in the Mediterranean with aiding and abetting illegal immigration
Members of the Iuventa refugee rescue ship receive the Paul Gruninger Prize [Kai von Kotze]

ACTIVISTS who saved the lives of over 14,000 people in the Mediterranean Sea could be jailed for 20 years after an Italian prosecutor charged them this week with aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

The prosecutor’s office in the Sicilian city of Trapani announced on Wednesday that it had brought the charges against 21 individuals and three NGOs.

Between August 2016 and August 2017, the activists took part in around 16 life-saving missions on board the refugee rescue ship Iuventa.

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