When Italian police officers entered the Holiday Inn in the northern Italian city of Turin and arrested a guest – the director of several Libyan prisons known for their inhumane conditions – they were acting on a warrant from the International Criminal Court.
The warrant against Osama Elmasri Njeem states that he is suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence.
But two days after his arrest last Sunday, Italian police released Mr. Njeem and escorted him back to Libya on a government plane. Pictures soon appeared in the Libyan news media showing him gleefully disembarking from a plane flying an Italian flag.
His release angered the International Criminal Court and alarmed human rights groups and Italy's political opposition, which accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government of cozying up to Libyan authorities as it relied on Libya to keep migrants away from Italian shores.
“You sent this man back for political reasons,” opposition lawmaker Peppe De Cristoforo told Italy's interior minister in parliament on Thursday. “Unfortunately, the Libyan authorities are in cahoots with the Italian government.”
Ms. Meloni's government has denied the charges and attributed the release to procedural reasons. Italian police arrested Mr. Njeemi before receiving a formal inquiry from the Ministry of Justice, violating procedure and invalidating the arrest, authorities said.
Mr. Njeem was already on his way home when the justice minister finished evaluating the ICC's warrant, government officials said.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mr Njeem had been removed from the country for “security reasons” as he was considered “unsafe”.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, when asked whether Italy's release under migrant deals was linked to Italy's “subordination” to Libya, said it was “subjugation to no one”.
These explanations did not convince the critics of the government.
“Am I the only one who thinks you're completely crazy?” Senator Matteo Renzi, former prime minister, asked a question in the Senate. “He was in jail and you brought him home.”
Since 2017, Italy has had a bilateral agreement with Libya that includes millions of euros in financial support to stem the flow of migrants from Africa trying to cross the Mediterranean to European shores.
Mrs. Meloni party approved the deal By reducing the number of rickety boat launches from Libya and Tunisia. The Prime Minister visited Libya's capital Tripoli several times last year and called relations with Libya “a priority for Italy.”
Human rights groups say the success has come at the cost of serious human rights abuses. They say North African countries have abandoned migrants in the Sahara without food or water or held them in Libyan prisons where they faced torture, sexual violence and starvation.
As the director of Mitiga prison in Tripoli, Mr Njeem, the head of Libya's judicial police, has been accused of committing, ordering or aiding crimes against people in prison since February 2015.
Some of his victims were arrested for religious reasons, on suspicion of “immoral conduct” or homosexuality, or for the purpose of coercion, the court said in a statement.
“This was the first major arrest of someone at the head of the Libyan prison system since 2011,” said Nello Scavo, a reporter for Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Mr. Scavo has been documenting abuses in Libyan prisons for years.
Riccardo Nouri, a spokesman for Amnesty International Italy, said his agency had documented torture, rape, forced labor and other crimes in prisons overseen by Mr. Njeem.
“He directly supervised and directed some of these centers,” Mr Nouri said, adding that the allegations against Mr Njeem were bolstered by reports from other agencies and institutions, including the US State Department (whose identity is known). a human rights report as Osama Najim).
Chantal Meloni, an Italian criminal lawyer and professor at the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, said Mr Njeem's release was a direct affront to the International Criminal Court and that “Italy is particularly concerned because it is a founder”. member”.
Still, many questions remained as to why the Italian authorities did not act quickly to correct any bureaucratic error and instead expelled a man wanted for war crimes from Italy.
Mr. Piantedosi, speaking on behalf of the Italian government, said that the decision to release Mr. Njeem was made with the courts. He added that the government will provide more detailed information next week.
Islam Al-Atrash Prepared a report from Tripoli.