Months of secret recordings of conversations, intercepted e-mails, a smuggled police officer, undercover investigators, bugs – no, that’s not an excerpt from a documentary about the state security of the GDR – all this happened five years ago on a sea rescue ship. The trial of some of them begins tomorrow.

Sascha Girke cannot understand it, in the 279th edition of “Today Important” he says: “In one year we rescued more than 14,000 people from distress at sea – and this ship was simply confiscated and has been lying in the port of Trapani ever since, rotting there and on the other side people are dying.” Italian investigators have collected evidence against him and other sea rescuers and accuse them of human smuggling, among other things. Authorities acted like in an agent thriller, secretly smuggled people onto the ship and monitored phones.

The trial against the Iuventa 10 will begin tomorrow. “The core of the prosecution’s charge is that the people we took on board were not in distress at sea, but that we previously arranged meeting points with Libyan smugglers to meet these people directly on board and then subsequently deceived the Italian authorities,” says Girke in an interview with “Today Important” host Michel Abdollahi.

Missions legitimized by the law of the sea

“All of our operations are covered by international maritime law, the Geneva Convention on Human Rights and various other, including national, laws. But in Italy, the plan, with the backing of the EU, is to prevent people from arriving.”

Man – Fynn Kliemann

“Crisis can also be cool!” once said the entrepreneur, influencer, craftsman … often mentioned jack of all trades … Fynn Kliemann. What kind of guy is he and how does he tick? Journalist Jonah Lemm interviewed Kliemann. He does not believe that Kliemann wanted to enrich himself with defective masks, everything had grown over his head. Nevertheless, the journalist sees Kliemann as responsible.

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