1,000 demand withdrawal of charges against the El Hiblu 3

More than 1,000 people and organisations, including President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, have signed an open letter demanding the withdrawal of charges against three African youths who are accused of hijacking a ship in 2019.

The open letter, being presented to Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg on Thursday, insists that the youths should not continue facing prosecution and is demanding their immediate release.

The organisations and individuals urged the government and the office of the attorney general to drop the case against the youths, known as the El Hiblu 3, and to immediately dismiss their trial.

The case goes back to March of 2019 when the merchant vessel El Hiblu rescued 108 people from a rubber boat. Some migrants remained on the dinghy as they feared they would be pushed back to Libya. They disappeared and are presumed dead.

El Hiblu was instructed to take the people aboard to Libya, an unsafe port.

When the migrants recognised the Libyan shore, they protested, some saying they would rather throw themselves overboard than return to the country they had fled.

Abdalla, Amara and Kader intervened to calm the situation, according to testimony. They acted as...