Italy's interior minister says he expelled Libyan warlord wanted by ICC because he posed 'danger'
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Italy repatriated a Libyan warlord sought by the International Criminal Court due to security concerns, Italy’s interior minister told lawmakers Thursday in the government’s first official comment on its decision expel the suspect and not hand him over to face charges.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi fielded pointed questions from opposition lawmakers during a Senate session two days after Ossama Anjiem, also know as Ossama al-Masri, was flown on a government plane back to Tripoli, where he received a hero's welcome. He had been arrested over the weekend in Turin after attending a soccer match.
Al-Masri was repatriated to Tripoli “for urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject,’’ Piantedosi told the Senate. He refused to go into greater detail, citing a scheduled address to lawmakers next week.
Senators expressed dismay that Italy had ignored its obligations to the criminal court in the Netherlands to turn over criminal suspects. They repeated calls that Premier Giorgia Meloni respond to lawmakers’ questions in an open session. 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 on Saturday, including Italy, 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.
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