28 Nov Sea Watch case and non-validation of the arrest in relation to the duty of rescue at sea

On the subject of circumstances impeding arrest in the act, represented by the cause of justification for the fulfillment of a duty or the exercise of a legitimate right, and a cause of non-punishment, it is not required that they exist clearly, being able to be even only likely to exist. In the well-known story of the Sea Watch, with reference to the flagrant arrest of Captain Carola Rackete for the crime of resisting a public official, the Court found the non-validation for subsistence correct, deemed perceptible by the operators, of the excuse for the fulfillment of the duty of rescuing castaways at sea. In this way, the nomofilactic judge ruled on the non-validation of the arrest, having the Public Prosecutor challenged the provision issued by the G.I.P. of Agrigento. The Supreme Court has reflected on the scope of the prohibition indicated in art. 385 c.p.p., which does not allow the arrest in flagrant if there appears to be a cause of justification that legitimizes the criminal action on the level of anti-legal. The indications of the Court concern the probative standard for the existence of the exceptions, the notion of place of safety and warship (Cass. 15697/20).