The Surveillance Scandal
Police wiretapped at least 40 people during the investigation, including crew members of Jugend Rettet, MSF and Save the Children, human rights lawyers, journalists and their sources.
Hidden microphones were placed aboard three rescue ships: the Vos Hestia, the Vos Prudence and the Iuventa. An MSF office in Sicily was bugged. Conversations protected by journalistic confidentiality and attorney–client privilege were intercepted, transcribed and included in the prosecution file.
Among the most serious cases was that of Nancy Porsia, a freelance journalist specialising in Libyan affairs who had been investigating Al-Bija, the Libyan coast guard commander implicated in human trafficking. Her phone was tapped for several months in 2017. Investigators collected the names of her sources and tracked her movements via geolocation. Journalist Nello Scavo was also intercepted while communicating with a source about footage of violence against migrants in Libya. When the wiretapping of journalists became public in April 2021, it sparked a major scandal, representing a serious threat to press freedom in Italy.
The Legal Challenge
Defence lawyers for MSF challenged the wiretapping before the court, arguing that the preliminary investigation judge's decree authorising the surveillance in March 2017 had failed to provide adequate reasons for its "absolute indispensability" as required by Italian law under Article 267 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. They requested the evidence be declared unusable. The court rejected the applications. The lawyers subsequently filed a motion requesting a constitutional review of the Italian norms in question.
The Spyware
Police in Trapani also hired a Milan-based company to provide spyware for infiltrating phones. The same company was later investigated by the European Parliament over allegations of unlawful surveillance practices.
The Public Debate
The revelation that journalists, lawyers and their confidential communications had been wiretapped and included in the investigation file raised concerns about violations of national and international laws protecting press freedom and attorney–client privilege. The transcripts appeared in the prosecution dossier despite serious questions about their admissibility as evidence.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders formally addressed the Italian state about the case on two occasions — in October 2020 and February 2023. The Italian government responded both times without properly addressing the concerns raised.
The surveillance apparatus assembled for the Trapani investigation – directed at rescue workers, lawyers, priests and journalists – was not a proportionate response to a credible criminal threat. It was the infrastructure of political suppression.
Sources
Hacked Phones, Undercover Cops, and Conspiracy Theories
The Intercept, Campbell & D'Agostino, December 2022 — primary journalistic investigation into the surveillance apparatus
The Protection of Journalistic Sources in Italian Criminal Proceedings: The Trapani Case
Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, July 2022
On the Iuventa Trial: The Criminalisation of Solidarity
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, 2024
Sea Rescuers Under Attack — ECCHR Case Documentation
ECCHR — includes documentation of wiretapping challenges at the preliminary hearing