The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation against Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over the controversial release and deportation of commander Osama Almasri Njeem, who was the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Libya.
The investigation was announced by Meloni herself, who, in a video on social media, said she had received a “warranty notice”, that is, a notification about the opening of an investigation, from prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi.
The suspicions are of favoritism and embezzlement, according to the prime minister, and the investigation also targets the ministers of Justice, Carlo Nordio, who did not request that Almasri be kept in prison, and of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, responsible for the deportation order, as well as the undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Alfredo Mantovano.
The complaint to the Public Prosecutor's Office, according to Meloni, was filed by lawyer Luigi Li Gotti, “a former left-wing politician very close” to former Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
“I am not blackmailable and I will not be intimidated. I will move forward with my head held high and without fear,” said the Prime Minister.
Almasri was arrested on January 19 in Turin, where he was to attend a football match between Juventus and Milan, but was released two days later by order of the Rome Court of Appeal, which argued that Nordio had not been informed in advance of the arrest, as is customary in cases involving the ICTY.
Furthermore, the minister reportedly did not comment on the situation during the period of detention of Almasri, commander of the Libyan Judicial Police. He was subsequently deported to Tripoli on an official Italian plane on the orders of Piantedosi, who cited “urgent security reasons due to the dangerousness of the individual”.
“After months of reflection, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the head of the Judicial Police of Tripoli, curiously when this person was about to enter Italian territory, after having spent 12 days peacefully in three other European countries,” Meloni declared on Tuesday.
Almasri is in charge of Libya's detention centers, which have been plagued by allegations of human rights violations and forced labor. One such prison is Mitiga, on the outskirts of Tripoli and the scene of alleged "murder, torture, rape and sexual violence," according to the ICC.
According to the court, the crimes were committed personally by Almasri or ordered by him, mainly against people arrested for “religious reasons”, such as Christians and atheists, or for supporting armed groups rival to the Special Dissuasion Forces (RAFA), a militia to which he is linked, but also against homosexuals and for purposes of “coercion”.
Libya is a central country for Italy's migration policies, which has financed, trained and equipped the local Coast Guard to carry out operations in the Mediterranean and prevent migrants and asylum seekers from reaching European shores.
“Shame, shame, shame!” exclaimed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, who was already the target of the same Lo Voi in the trial in which he was recently acquitted of a kidnapping charge, a case related to the blocking of a migrant ship in 2019.
“I am with Meloni, Piantedosi, Nordio and Mantovano. I defend the separation of powers and condemn choices that seem spiteful,” reinforced the also vice prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Antonio Tajani. (HANDLE)
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