Italian officials to stand trial over illegal migrant shipwreck in 2023

An Italian judge on Monday ordered six police and coastguard officers to stand trial for mishandling operations during an illegal migrant shipwreck that killed more than 90 people near the town of Cutro in 2023, media reports said.

The illegal migrant accident, one of the deadliest in Italy's history, involved a wooden sailboat that set out from Turkey and smashed apart on rocks within sight of a beach near the shore of the southern Calabria region.

The officials, two from the coastguard and four from the Guardia di Finanza police force, have been charged with multiple manslaughter related to negligence that may have contributed to the shipwreck, according to Ansa news agency.

Under Italian law, prosecutors have to ask a judge whether to call a formal trial for the suspects after wrapping up their probe. Ansa said the trial is due to start in January.

The decision to order the trial against the six suspects triggered an angry reaction from Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League party and deputy prime minister in the conservative government of Giorgia Meloni.

"A single word: SHAME. To put on trial six officials who risk their lives every day to save others. SHAME," Salvini wrote on social media.

Late last year, in a separate trial connected to the Cutro case, three people were convicted of aiding and abetting illegal immigration causing the death of the illegal migrants and were sentenced to up to 16 years in jail.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Leslie Adler)