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Italy's parliament will vote on Tuesday whether two ministers and a cabinet secretary can be prosecuted over the matter...
Three senior Italian officials in Giorgia Meloni's government are suspected of helping a Libyan warlord escape justice earlier this year and hiding secret meetings related to his case from Parliament, according to a report to the legislature summarizing the prosecution's case.
The events surrounding the arrest and immediate release of Osama Al-Masri Njeem, wanted by the International Criminal Court, have become a national scandal. Critics of the government argue that he was repatriated to avoid reprisals from Libya, which could have targeted Italian energy interests or allowed more migrant boats to cross the Mediterranean.
Al-Masri, a long-serving police officer at Tripoli's notorious Mitiga prison, was arrested in January in Turin after attending a Juventus football match but was released after just 48 hours. The International Criminal Court charges him with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, murder and sexual violence. He is accused of 22 rapes and 36 murders.
The role of two Italian government ministers and a cabinet secretary in his release is now under investigation and parliament will hold a final vote on October 9 on whether their parliamentary immunity from prosecution should be lifted.
Before the vote, Federico Gianassi, a deputy from the opposition Democratic Party and parliamentary rapporteur on the committee overseeing cases against ministers, summarized the prosecutors' case in a report.
While Meloni has a majority in Parliament, which is likely to shield her ministers from trial, the proceedings still threaten to embarrass her and leave her vulnerable to accusations that her government is setting aside international law under pressure on hot-button issues like migration.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano are accused by prosecutors of aiding a criminal to escape justice from the International Criminal Court and of abuse of office following the arrest of Al-Masri on an Interpol arrest warrant on January 19.
A spokesman for Nordio said that as justice minister he had been “obliged to conduct a preliminary political and legal assessment before sending the requests,” which took two days, leading to Al-Masri’s release after a procedural error. The documents obtained by the ICC contained “doubts and inaccuracies” that made them invalid, the spokesman added.
Regarding his role in authorizing Al-Masri's departure on a state flight, Interior Minister Piantedosi said that Al-Masri "was released and deported for urgent security reasons" and "due to the risk posed by the subject."
Mantovano's office did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Gianassi's report, ministers held online meetings in the days following the arrest in January, where they were warned by intelligence services that holding Al-Masri could lead to "retaliation" against "Italy's economic interests linked to the [state oil giant] ENI gas plant in Melliah and its immigration interests, given that the RADA militia is the entity exercising security powers in the relevant areas indicated and that relations with it have been strengthened over the past year."
Al-Masri was a key figure in RADA, Libya's "Special Prevention Force for Combating Terrorism and Organized Crime."
Officials were also warned of the risk of Italian citizens being arrested in an act of retaliation for the detention of Al-Masri.
During the meetings, ministers decided on a "non-intervention strategy" that led to his release due to a procedural error, the report to MPs said.
This inertia allowed Al-Masri to be released and potentially important evidence in phones and documents to be lost. His return to Libya on an Italian state plane, where he was greeted by cheering crowds, "facilitated the continuation of similar behavior," the report said.
The flight "was not justified by security reasons" and "ensures Al-Masri an immediate and protected return, without the possibility of arrest," Gianassi said.
Giving an account to parliament on February 5, the week after Al-Masri's release, the two ministers did not disclose the ministerial meetings where the issue was discussed and where the strategy to not pursue the case in Italy was approved, the report noted.
The ministers and the cabinet secretary acted on “simple political opportunism, based on general fears and unsupported by concrete evidence, which show the weakness of the Italian government in the face of armed gangs operating abroad and violating human rights,” Gianassi told the committee deciding on ministerial prosecutions on Wednesday.
If the ministers are protected by Parliament, as expected, due to Meloni's majority, Al-Masri's alleged victims could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Prosecutors at the ICJ have also called on judges to open proceedings against the Italian government, which would refer Italy to the UN Security Council for violating its international obligations. A decision is expected in the coming months. / Adapted from Politico /
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