A dossier of charges against Interior Minister Matteo Salvini including kidnapping, illegal arrest and abuse of office in the Diciotti migrant case was sent from Agrigento to Palermo on Friday.
Salvini kept the 177 Eritreans aboard the coast guard ship for 10 days saying they could not land until the EU agreed to take them in.
In the end the Italian Catholic Church, Ireland and Albania agreed to take them.
Salvini, who has stopped migrant rescue ships from docking in Italy, is to be tried by a ministers' court in the Sicilian capital.
Also charged with the same alleged crimes is his cabinet chief Matteo Piantedosi.