Italy’s government Wednesday blamed its much-criticised release of a Libyan war crimes suspect on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which it accused of presenting a poorly written arrest warrant.The case of Osama Almasri Najim, head of Libya’s judicial police, has sparked a major political row for Italy’s hard-right government, with opposition parties pressing for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to address parliament about it.Najim was arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin on January 19 on an ICC warrant, only to be released and flown back to the Libyan capital Tripoli two days later on an Italian air force plane.Critics have denounced the decision to free a man wanted on charges including murder, rape and torture relating to his management of Tripoli’s Mitiga detention centre.Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told parliament Wednesday that Najim had been arrested on a warrant “characterised by inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions”.Najim was freed after an appeals court refused to validate his arrest saying that Italian law called for the justice minister to weigh in on warrants from the ICC, which he had not done. Nordio said at the time the ministry was still studying the ICC’s request, which he noted was “in English with several attachments in Arabic”.Nordio, moreover, pointed to discrepancies concerning dates within the arrest warrant, with the same crimes attributed to Najim in February 2011 and in other parts of the mandate in February 2015.”An irreconcilable contradiction emerges regarding an essential element of the criminal conduct of the arrested person, regarding the time of the crime committed,” said Nordio, citing “patent, gross and serious contradictions” within the warrant.Six days later the ICC sent a “corrected version” of the arrest warrant, Nordio said, including the dissenting opinion of a judge who had questioned the international court’s jurisdiction in the matter.The ICC did not immediately respond to a request from AFP for comment.Meloni revealed last week that she, Nordio and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi were under investigation over the case, a decision she said was politically motivated.A complaint had been made to a Rome prosecutor, who passed it onto the special court that considers cases against ministers.Meloni and the two ministers are also named in a complaint filed Monday in Rome by a South Sudanese migrant who says he was tortured by Najim in the Mitiga detention centre.Lam Magok accused the three Italians of “aiding and abetting” Najim by enabling his release.- ‘Deliberate choice’ -Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, said Wednesday that Italy’s “international credibility has been tarnished”.And she called again for Meloni to come to parliament herself to explain the “deliberate choice… to free and escort home a Libyan torturer”.”What kind of country do we want to be, colleagues? On the side of the tortured or on the side of the torturers?” Schlein asked in parliament.Piantedosi spoke to MPs shortly after Nordio, where he repeated that once Najim had been released from custody he was deemed too dangerous to remain in Italy. He denied suggestions that Italy had been responding to pressure from Libya in repatriating Najim.Some opposition politicians have alleged the suspect was sent home to avoid jeopardising relations with Libya.Italy has a controversial agreement dating from 2017 with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli.Under the deal, Rome provides training and funding to the Libyan coastguard to deter the departures of migrants or return those already at sea back to Libya.”I deny in the most categorical manner that… the government received any act or communication that could even remotely be considered a form of undue pressure,” Piantedosi said.In the weeks before his arrest in Turin, Najim had been in London and France, as well as Germany where he had been under surveillance at the request of Interpol, the minister said.The inter-governmental policing organisation only issued worldwide notice for his arrest on January 18, Piantedosi added.Najim was found with a Dominican passport bearing a 10-year US visa issued in November 2024, he said.
Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:27:52 GMT
