An Italian judge has ordered the release of the German captain of a migrant rescue ship who had been placed under house arrest for breaking an Italian naval blockade.
Carola Rackete was arrested after forcing her ship carrying 40 migrants rescued in the Mediteranean into the Sicilian port of Lampedusa, however, Judge Allesandra Vella ruled Rackete had been carrying out her duty to protect life and had not committed any act of violence.
German politicians, including president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have criticised Italy’s treatment of Ms Rackete and its criminalisation of migrant rescue vessels in the Mediteranean.