A judge in Italy ordered former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini to stand trial for refusing to let a migrant rescue ship dock at a Sicilian port in 2019, leaving hundreds of people stranded at sea for days.

According to local media outlet LaPresse news agency, the judge, Lorenzo Iannelli, set September 15 as the trial date.

Salvini was present for the hearing in Palermo on Saturday and confirmed the outcome.

He defended himself arguing he was only doing his job and his duty by denying entry to the Open Arms rescue ship which had 147 people onboard rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.

"I'm going on trial for this, for having defended my country?" he said. "I'll go with my head held high, also in your name."

Salvini is accused by prosecutors of a dereliction of duty and kidnapping, for keeping the migrants at sea off the coast of Lampedusa in August 2019.

During the stalemate, some of the migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation.

Eventually, after a close to three-week ordeal, the remaining 83 migrants still on board were allowed to disembark in Lampedusa after a court overturned Salvini's ban on private rescue boats entering Italian waters.

Salvini had maintained a hard line on migration as interior minister during the first government of the then prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, from 2018-2019.

Salvini's lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, expressed her confidence that the court would determine that no kidnapping was involved.

"There was no limitation on their freedom," Bongiorno told journalists after the hearing. "The ship had the possibility of going anywhere. There was just a prohibition of going into port. But it had 100,000 options."

Open Arms, on its part, welcomed the judge's ruling, tweeting: "Salvini on trial accused of kidnapping people and omission. We are happy for all the people we rescued in that mission and for all the vulnerable people saved so far in the sea of ​​shame."

(With input from Reuters)