The Meloni government relies on the cooperation of the Libyan government to block the departure of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
ROME — Giorgia Meloni’s government is facing backlash after it released a Libyan general wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
Najeem Osema Almasri Habish, head of the Libyan judicial police, is accused by the court in The Hague of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in a prison near Tripoli where migrants are detained.
He was arrested on Sunday in Turin, where he had come to watch a Juventus football match, on the basis of the ICC’s arrest warrant. His arrest was welcomed by migrant rescue charities and rights groups, who said it would help end the cycle of impunity for human rights abuses in Libya.
But an Italian court ruled that prosecutors had made a procedural mistake, and released him Tuesday. He was repatriated to Libya on an Italian government plane, according to a Libyan government official.
Opposition parties and rights groups condemned the release as “hypocritical” and “scandalous.” Italy is a founding member of the ICC and the treaty that established it was signed in Rome in 1998. All state parties to the Rome Statute are obliged to arrest and surrender wanted individuals to the ICC for trial.
Rome’s court of appeal ruled the arrest “irregular” because the Justice Ministry had not been consulted. “As a result, the conditions for validation are not met and, consequently, a request aimed at the application of the precautionary measure results in the immediate release of the person received,” according to the court order reported by the news agency ANSA.
Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday demanded the justice minister explain, telling the Senate: “The prime minister said she wants to hunt traffickers all over the world. Yesterday she had one, that the ICC defined a dangerous criminal and you released him and sent him back to Tripoli on a government plane. Is it just me who thinks this is crazy or is this the behavior of a hypocritical and indecent government?”
Riccardo Noury, a spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy, said it was “scandalous” that Italy was ignoring its obligations to the ICC.
Member of parliament Angelo Bonelli of the Green Europe party said: “Wasn’t Meloni supposed to wage war all over the globe on human traffickers and arrest them? Instead, today she freed Libyan trafficker and torturer Almasri Habish and sent him back to Libya, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant. What a disgrace.”
The migrant rescue NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans said the Italian government’s “shameful protection” shows that the government’s agreement with Libya is “dangerous and criminal.”
Meloni’s office did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
