A Libyan national convicted over a deadly migrant shipwreck is set to marry a prominent Italian migration activist after the pair met while he was serving time in prison.
Alaa Faraj was sentenced by Italian courts to 30 years in prison for multiple counts of manslaughter and aiding illegal immigration, linked to a 2015 Mediterranean shipwreck that left 49 people dead. He served a decade in Palermo before receiving a partial presidential pardon in December from Sergio Mattarella, reducing his sentence by more than 11 years. He remains liable to serve additional time, though further reductions are possible.
Faraj is now planning to marry Alessandra Sciurba, a university lecturer and former president of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans. The two met during a prison education programme in Palermo, where Sciurba became involved in his case and publicly supported his claim that he had been wrongly convicted.
Their relationship developed through correspondence, later forming the basis of a book compiled from Faraj’s prison letters, which was published last year and nominated for an international literary prize.
The couple plan to marry in June in Palermo in what Italian media describe as an interreligious ceremony, potentially involving both a Muslim imam and the city’s Catholic archbishop.
Italian authorities, however, had previously identified Faraj as part of a migrant smuggling network operating across the central Mediterranean route. He has consistently denied the charges, saying he fled Libya’s civil war in search of a football career in Europe.
Separately, several members of Mediterranea Saving Humans are currently facing trial in Italy on accusations of facilitating illegal migration and profiting from their activities. Those proceedings remain ongoing.
