The Court of Agrigento examined the request to validate the arrest of Carole Rackete on grounds of alleged offences pertaining to Art. 1100 Naval Code on acts of resistance or violence against a warship and resistance to a public official (Art. 337 of the Italian Criminal Code) related to her conduct of 29 June 2019 when entering the port of Lampedusa.

The Court rejected the request to validate the arrest of Carola Rackete, as well as the protective measure of prohibition of stay in the province of Agrigento.

The decision invokes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and especially Art. 98 UNCLOS (duty to render assistance), as well as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR), but also the general principle of international law “pact sunt servanda”. In this respect, the decision stresses that these provisions are translated and reinforced in Italian domestic law, whereby Art. 1158 of the Naval Code imposes criminal sanctions to masters of ships -national or foreign- that do not render assistance to ships found in difficulty as per Art. 490 of the Naval Code.

The decision underlines that from Art. 10 of Decree 286/98 derives an obligation for state authorities and commanders of ships to render assistance and rescue foreigners that have entered the territory of the State even in an irregular manner following rescue at sea operations. Furthermore, with regard to the violation of article 1100 of the Naval Code, the court found that the naval unit of the Guardia di Finanza which was rammed by the Sea Watch captained by Carola Rackete does not fall within the category of “warship” as specified in the provision; as a consequence, the conduct could not be framed under the aforementioned article.

The decision stresses that "the principle of the freedom of states to regulate the flows of entry into their national territory (expression of sovereignty)" should be in line with "the limits deriving from customary law and from the limits that the state undertakes by adhering to international treaties", among which are "the duty of render assistance to ships in difficulty and rescue persons at sea and the obligation, on the part of the state authorities, to provide first aid and assistance to foreigners who have entered, even irregularly, the territory of the state".

In conclusion the Court found that the alleged offences under Art. 1100 Naval were not substantiated and that the offences under Art. 337 of the Italian Criminal Code are not sustained, as the actions of the accused were in line with Art. 51 of the Italian Criminal Code, which exempts from punishment those who are acting in accordance with a duty imposed by the rule of law or a legitimate order of public authority.