With the order of 3 December 2025, the Court of Agrigento suspended the administrative detention of the sailing boat TROTAMAR III, belonging to CompassCollective, a network of activists engaged in supporting search and rescue activities for shipwrecked people in the central Mediterranean, stating that failure to communicate with the Libyan authorities is not provided for by law as a reason for sanction and therefore cannot justify either fines or administrative detention.
The TROTAMAR III and its captain had been accused of not immediately communicating the rescue operations to the Coordination Centre responsible for maritime rescue in the area where the event took place (the Libyan one), having communicated the rescue exclusively to the Maltese and Italian authorities.
This action – which was necessary due to the well-known violence of the Libyan authorities and their collusion with human traffickers, as well as the failure to respect basic human rights in Libya – resulted in the administrative detention of the vessel and the imposition of an administrative penalty on the captain and the shipowner (see the Justice Fleet campaign).
In the order in question, the Court of Agrigento specifies that, given the essentially criminal nature of the penalty imposed and, in any case, on the basis of the law, priority must be given to “the principle of the specificity and certainty of the offence and the principle of the prohibition of analogical interpretation”.
This means that penalties can theoretically only be imposed in the event of a violation of “one of the conditions” referred to in Piantedosi decree law.
These conditions do not expressly include failure to promptly notify the rescue operations to the Coordination Centre responsible for maritime rescue in whose area of responsibility they took place, and therefore such omission cannot be penalised.
The importance of this ruling, which is strictly anchored to precise and correct regulatory parameters and general principles of law, lies in reinforcing the conviction that failure to communicate with Libyan authorities by vessels of the so-called civil fleet cannot be subject to sanctions. This circumstance has already been recognised by other courts and courts of appeal on the basis of the finding that the Libyan authorities cannot be defined as credible actors in the search and rescue system and, in any case, Libya cannot be considered a safe place of disembarkation for shipwrecked persons, migrants and asylum seekers.
The decision of the Court of Agrigento is one of many decisions reported by ASGI over the last two years, which demonstrate the illegality of the administrative practices applying the so-called Piantedosi decree against NGOs and of that legislation itself.
ASGI continues to call for the activities of organisations engaged in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean not to be criminalised, for the administrative authorities not to apply rules that reduce the operational capacity of sea rescue operations, and for the repeal of all legislation on this matter that has been recently enacted by the current Italian government.
Asgi, 22 December 2025
Press release in Italian: https://www.asgi.it/asilo-e-protezione-internazionale/tribunale-di-agrigento-non-si-possono-sanzionare-le-ong-perche-non-comunicano-con-i-libici/
