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Europe|Italy Arrested a Libyan Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity. Then It Sent Him Home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/world/europe/italy-libya-migrants-international-criminal-court.html
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The government attributed the release to procedural reasons. But critics say it is because Italy depends on Libya to stem the flow of migrants from Africa.
Jan. 24, 2025, 8:17 a.m. ET
When Italian police officers swooped into a Holiday Inn in Turin in northern Italy 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 the man, Osama Elmasry Njeem, said he was suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence.
But two days after the arrest last Sunday, the Italian police released Mr. Njeem and escorted him back to Libya on a government plane. Pictures soon emerged on Libyan news media showing him cheerfully descending the aircraft bearing the Italian flag.
His release has enraged the International Criminal Court and has alarmed human rights groups and Italy’s political opposition, which accused the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of cozying up to the Libyan authorities because it relies on Libya to keep migrants away from Italian shores.
“You sent this man back for political reasons,” Peppe De Cristoforo, an opposition lawmaker, told Italy’s interior minister in Parliament on Thursday. “Unfortunately the Libyan authority is complicit with the Italian government.”
Ms. Meloni’s government has denied those accusations and attributed the release to procedural reasons. The Italian police, the authorities said, arrested Mr. Njeem before receiving an official request to do so from the justice ministry, violating the procedure and invalidating the arrest.
