(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 21 - Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday said his acquittal in the Open Arms trial in which he faced kidnapping charges for not allowing 147 migrants to disembark from an NGO-run rescue ship as part of his closed-ports policy when he was interior minister five years ago recognized that he had fulfilled his duty and repaid him for all the bitterness he had endured.
    The acquittal "recognizes the fact that I fulfilled my duty and repays me for all the bitterness", Salvini, the leader of the League party, told reporters in Rome.
    Asked about a potential return as interior minister, Salvini said: "I am fine where I am, for now".
    "What I did at the interior ministry was absolutely correct.
    "If someone though over the last few years: 'you can't return to the Viminale (interior ministry) because you are on trial, you are potentially a criminal'…this thing is over", he said.
    (ANSA).