Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni says she is being investigated for repatriating a Libyan warlord
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MILAN, Italy — Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation against Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and two government ministers for repatriating a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the premier announced Tuesday.
Meloni revealed the investigation over allegedly aiding and abetting Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, in a video posted on social media. She said her justice and interior ministers and an undersecretary are also targeted in the investigation.
The government has been under fire from the opposition, human rights groups and the ICC for releasing Al-Masri on a technicality after he was arrested in the northern city of Turin on a warrant from the international court.
Meloni said she presumes that the investigation was prompted by a complaint from an opposition politician. In Italy, prosecutors must launch investigations based on complaints, and it is up to a preliminary hearing judge to decide whether charges are filed or not. The process can take months, if not longer.
Al-Masri was held in Turin, where he had attended a soccer match, on Jan. 19, the day after the ICC’s arrest warrant was issued. He was expelled on a government plane Jan. 21, after a court failed to confirm his arrest.
Giorgia Meloni has met frequently with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire since her far-right-led government came to power in 2022.
Meloni complained in the social media post that the warrant was issued upon Al-Masri’s arrival in Italy after he had “stayed for around 12 days in three other European countries.”
She said the arrest warrant had not been transmitted to the Justice Ministry as required by law, “and for this reason the Appeals Court in Rome decided not to confirm the arrest.”
“At this point, this subject was free in Italian territory, and rather than letting him free, we decided to expel and repatriate him immediately for security reasons with a flight, as happens in other similar cases,’’ Meloni said.
Meloni expressed indignation at the investigation, adding: “I cannot be blackmailed. I will not be intimidated.”
Also under investigation are Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, as well as Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano.
Piantedosi is scheduled to respond to lawmakers’ questions about the case on Wednesday. He told the Senate last week that he expelled Al-Masri “for urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject.”
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female leader, has toned down some of her divisive rhetoric, but her government continues to pursue far-right policies.
The ICC warrant accused Al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya starting in 2015 that are punishable with life in prison.
The ICC said he was accused of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence. It said the warrant was transmitted to member states, including Italy, on Jan. 18, and that the court had also provided real-time information that he had entered Europe. The court said it had reminded Italy at the time to contact it “without delay” if it ran into any problems cooperating with the warrant.
Al-Masri leads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Deterrence Forces.
Like many other militias in western Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities in the civil war that followed the overthrow and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Recently, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor issued arrest warrants over alleged crimes in Libya beyond the civil war, including in detention facilities where human rights groups have documented abuses.
Barry writes for the Associated Press.
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