THE captain who defied Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was freed from house arrest yesterday after a judge dismissed some of the charges against her.  

Italian police arrested Captain Carola Rackete on Saturday morning after she and the Sea Watch 3 crew disembarked onto Lampedusa 40 of the 53 migrants they rescued on June 12 from a near-certain death off the coast of Libya.

The EU-funded Libyan Coastguard demanded the Sea Watch 3 crew return the migrants to Tripoli, where a brutal war is raging in the aftermath of Nato’s bombing campaign and where human rights groups warn black migrants are being sold as slaves. Mr Salvini echoed the Libyan Coastguard’s demands.