Neither Mediterranea Saving Humans nor Maersk has denied the €125,000 ($151,000/£108,000) payment was made to the NGO in late November. The Mare Jonio had transferred 27 migrants from the Danish company’s vessel on September 11th.
Both parties have claimed that the money was a donation made to cover the ship’s costs and its crew, who later took the migrants to Italy.
Italian prosecutors, meanwhile, have claimed both the NGO and Maersk had negotiated a cash payment and that the NGO had originally demanded as much as €275,000 ($331,000/£237,000).
“After this investigation,” Casarini said, “which will perhaps last years, it will prove that the intent was something else: to smear, block, prevent, control the freedom of people who go out to help at sea. In the end, we will see.”