
Charities running migrant rescue ships accused of collusion with human traffickers, "facing 20 years in prison"
CBSN
Charities running migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean faced a pre-trial hearing in Sicily Saturday over alleged collusion with human traffickers after a controversial probe that involved mass wiretapping.
Twenty-one suspects, including crew members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and German NGO Jugend Rettet rescue ships, are accused of "aiding and abetting unauthorized entry into Italy" in 2016 and 2017.
"Our crews rescued over 14,000 people in distress from unseaworthy and overcrowded boats... and are now facing 20 years in prison," Kathrin Schmidt, who sailed with Jugend Rettet's ship Iuventa, said ahead of the hearing.

Mount Etna, the rambunctious volcano on the Italian island of Sicily, grumbled back to life on Monday, spewing hot ash and lava in a pyroclastic flow, the nation's volcano monitoring body said. There was no immediate report of any risk to the local population, which is accustomed to Etna's frequent eruptions, or to air travel.