The preliminary hearing on 26 January 2024 lasted approximately one and a half hours.

Defense lawyers as well as three lawyers for the prosecution were present in the courtroom. No defendants were in attendance and there was also no lawyer present from the State Legal Service of Palermo (Avvocatura dello Stato), assigned to represent the Ministry of the Interior in its capacity as a civil party in the proceedings (see report from 25 February 2023).

The hearing began with a discussion of the upcoming hearing dates. Noting that several defense lawyers would be participating in a country-wide lawyers’ strike scheduled for 9 February 2024, the judge announced that the hearing scheduled for 9 February would remain scheduled, but on the day he would simply postpone to the following day, 10 February.

It was agreed that the planned examination of the two witnesses for the prosecution would take place on Saturday, 10 February, with the exceptional possibility to continue on Sunday, 11 February, if necessary, to conclude the examinations without further delay. It was also agreed that the requested examination of the captain (employed by the shipping company Vroon) of the Vos Hestia, the SAR vessel chartered by Save the Children, could also take place during the 10 February hearing, time permitting, but otherwise would occur, as per the lawyers’ request to concentrate the hearings, in a newly scheduled hearing on Monday, 12 February.

Next, the judge addressed the issue of transcripts received from the Coast Guard of communications between the Italian MRCC and the search and rescue ship Aquarius in relation to the March 2017 SAR incident under examination, as well as communications between the IMRCC and all ships involved in the area during the September 2016 SAR incident under examination. While the appointed experts (see report from 14 December 2023) had submitted the translated transcript files to the court, the judge noted that differences in the indexing of the reports made it difficult to understand which search and rescue incidents they pertained to and to match them to the corresponding expert reports from the Coast Guard with the tracking positions of the ships. Therefore, the judge ordered the experts to adjust their indexing system to correspond with that of the Coast Guard documents. When the judge asked the defense lawyers if they would like to question the experts regarding their reports, the lawyers reserved the right to make such a request after having the chance to review the documentation with the revised indexing.  

The judge also announced that the additional documentation requested from the Coast Guard and Italian MRCC during the 12 January 2024 hearing had not yet arrived. This information includes additional position tracking data and communications transcripts for all ships on site during the 25-26 March 2017 search and rescue events under examination, including the vessels of several sea rescue organizations (Sea Watch, Sea Eye and Aquarius) as well as all military vessels, including Libyan assets, present.   

The judge also reported updates relating to the summons of the two witnesses for the prosecution scheduled to be examined during the 9 and 10 February hearings. Regarding the witness previously contacted by the Judicial Police (Polizia Giudiziaria) who reported that she would be working onboard a ship during the relevant dates, the judge noted that the court had also received an email from her affirming the receipt of the summons and requesting that her examination be delayed due to her work schedule. Noting that work requirements do not constitute a legitimate impediment, the judge confirmed her summons for 9 and 10 February, with the provision that she could appear online via Microsoft Teams, either on her own device or by reporting to the nearest local police station and connecting there.

Regarding the second witness, the judge reported that he had still not been successfully contacted. Hence, the judge ordered that efforts to reach him be continued and scheduled an additional hearing on 2 February 2024 to acquire updates regarding the summons and status of both witnesses. The judge clarified that if either of the witnesses failed to attend the hearings as summoned, he would then arrange for coercive accompaniment to deliver them to court.

The next preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place on 2 February 2024.