Lawmakers were due on Wednesday to quiz parliamentary relations minister Federico D’Inca on the case of 18 Italian fishermen who have been imprisoned in eastern Libya since the beginning of September for allegedly entering Libyan coastal waters, according to a statement.
The Question Time session will be aired live by Italy's national broadcaster RAI; said the statement from the Chamber of Deputies lower house of parliament.
Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte and foreign minister Luigi Di Maio last week met relatives of the fishermen who had travelled to Rome from Sicily to stage a protest over their ongoing detention.
The government has vowed to expedite the safe release of the fishermen. The members of Sicily's Mazara del Vallo fleet have been held in Benghazi since 1 September after local security forces seized their two boats north of the eastern port city .
In mid-September Di Maio said Italy refused to bow to "blackmail" after warlord Khalifa Haftar is understood to demanded that four Libyan footballers who were arrested in Italy in 2015 and jailed on human trafficking charges are released in exchange for the fishermen's freedom.
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