A trial over delayed rescue operations for a February 2023 migrant boat sinking off the coast of Steccato di Cutro in the region of Calabria, southern Italy, was delayed on January 14, before it had even gotten underway.

The wreck resulted in the death of 94 people who had been on the Summer Love vessel. Among the ascertained deaths were 35 minors, including infants of only a few months old, while an unknown number went missing and have never been found.

The decision to postpone the trial was announced at what was to have been the start of the first hearing on the morning of January 14 before the Crotone court.

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Television cameras banned from the courtroom

The trial had been assigned to a section already occupied every Wednesday for a trial against the 'Ndrangheta with 101 defendants. As a result, the Cutro trial was instead assigned to a new panel of judges: Chief Justice Alfonso Scibona, flanked by Giuseppe Collazzo and Glauco Panattoni. The trial has been postponed to January 30.

Television cameras will not be allowed inside, as the new judges have signed an order prohibiting the videotaping of the trial, except by the court's technical staff.

However, journalists will be permitted to enter the courtroom during the trial.

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Plaintiffs and polemics over NGO presence

There will be six defendants in the trial, four of whom are from the Financial Police and two from the Coastal Police.

There are 86 plaintiffs in the case, including survivors, families of the victims, and NGOs.

On the presence of the NGOs, there has been debate: a Financial Police trade union first expressed concern about possible pressure on the judges, then lawyer Lidia Vicchio, who is defending some of the plaintiffs, replied that "in a state of law there is the right of plaintiffs to be present during the hearings."

The NGOs Emergency, Louise Michel, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Sea-Watch, Sos Humanity, and Sos Méditerranée expressed the hope that the postponement "will not affect the possibility to be present for the victims' families," noting that the families say they have been forgotten by Italy.

"This is what hurts us the most," they wrote in a letter. "None of the promises that politicians made in these years has been kept."

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