International court demands answers after Italy released Osama Elmasry Njeem, who is accused of abusing detainees.Italy had no choice but to free a Libyan officer wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) because of mistakes and inaccuracies in the court’s arrest warrant, the country’s justice minister said.
The allegation from Minister Carlo Nordio on Tuesday comes after authorities in Italy detained and then released Osama Elmasry Njeem on an ICC warrant that said he was suspected of the murder, torture, and rape of detainees in Libya.
Njeem is the head of the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centres. He was flown home to Tripoli two days after being taken into custody in Turin in January.
The ICC, which has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the country’s 2011 civil war, demanded an explanation from Italy over why Njeem was freed, saying Rome let him go without any consultation.
His release also triggered a legal investigation into Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, two of her ministers, and a cabinet undersecretary. Advertisement
‘Huge, hasty mess’
On Wednesday, Nordio, one of Meloni’s ministers under investigation, told parliament the ICC’s warrant was “marked by inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions”.
Nordio said there was “uncertainty” in the warrant over when Njeem was suspected of committing the alleged crimes, saying the document stated alleged abuses were committed from 2015 to 2024, but later referred to crimes committed from 2011 onwards.
The ICC later corrected the mistake when it publicly unsealed the warra …
