A trial pitting Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni against investigative journalist Roberto Saviano opens on Tuesday, with the anti-mafia author accused of defamation for an outburst over her stance on migrants. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party was in opposition at the time, but took office last month after triumphing at the polls on a nationalist campaign that promised to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller "Gomorrah", risks up to three years in prison.
The case dates back to December 2020 when he was asked on a political TV chat show for a comment on the death of a six-month-old baby from Guinea in a shipwreck.
The baby, Joseph, had been one of 111 migrants rescued by the Open Arms charity ship, but he died before he could receive medical attention.
In footage shot by rescuers and shown to Saviano on the chat show, the baby's mother -- who has just been pulled from the sea without Joseph -- can be heard weeping "Where's my baby? Help, I lose my baby!"
A visibly emotional Saviano blasted Meloni and Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant League party, which is now part of her coalition government -- both of whom have long used anti-migrant rhetoric.
"I just want to say to Meloni, and Salvini, you bastards! How could you?" Saviano said on the show.
