ROME — Three top Italian officials in Giorgia Meloni’s government helped a Libyan warlord escape justice earlier this year and concealed secret meetings about his case from parliament, according to a report to the legislature summarizing the prosecution’s case.
The events surrounding the arrest and prompt release of Osama Al-Masri Njeem, wanted by the International Criminal Court, have become a national scandal. The government’s critics argue he was repatriated to avoid retaliation from Libya, which could have targeted Italian energy interests or allowed more migrant boats to cross the Mediterranean.
Al-Masri, a long-time enforcer in Tripoli’s notorious Mitiga prison, had been arrested in January in Turin after attending a Juventus football match, but was released after only 48 hours. The ICC accuses him of 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 letting him go is now under investigation, and the parliament will take a final vote on Oct. 9 as to whether their parliamentary immunity from prosecution should be lifted.
Ahead of the vote, Federico Gianassi, an MP for the opposition Democratic Party and parliamentary rapporteur to the committee that oversees cases against ministers, summarized the prosecutors’ case in a report. POLITICO saw a copy.
Safe majority
While Meloni has a majority in the parliament that will likely shield her ministers from standing trial, the proceedings still threaten to embarrass her and leave her vulnerable to accusations that her government brushes aside international law under pressure over hot-button issues such as migration.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano are accused by prosecutors of helping a criminal escape justice from the ICC, and abuse of office after Al-Masri’s arrest on an Interpol warrant on Jan. 19.
A spokesman for Nordio said that as minister of justice he had been “obliged to carry out a preliminary political and legal assessment before forwarding requests,” which took two days, leading to Al-Masri’s release after a procedural error. The documents received from the ICC contained “doubts and inaccuracies” that rendered them void, the spokesman added.
Regarding his part in authorizing Al-Masri’s removal on a state flight, Interior Minister Piantedosi said Al-Masri “was released and expatriated for urgent security reasons” and “because of the danger posed by the subject.” Mantovano’s office did not reply to a request for comment.
Fear of retaliation
According to Gianassi’s report, the ministers held online meetings on the days following the arrest in January where they were warned by the intelligence services that holding Al-Masri could lead to “retaliation” against Italy’s “economic interests linked to the [state-owned oil giant] ENI gas plant in Melliah and its immigration interests, given that the RADA militia is the entity that exercises security powers in the relevant areas indicated and that relations with it have strengthened over the last year.”
Al-Masri was a leading figure in RADA, Libya’s “Special Deterrence Force for the Countering of Terrorism and Organized Crime.”
The officials were also warned of the danger that Italian citizens could be arrested in a tit-for-tat act of revenge for Al-Masri’s detention.
During the meetings, the ministers decided on a “strategy of non-intervention” that led to his release on a procedural error, the report to MPs said.
This inertia permitted Al-Masri’s release and the loss of potentially important evidence on phones and in documents. His return to Libya on an Italian state jet to be greeted by cheering crowds “facilitated the continuation of similar conduct,” the report said.
The flight “was not justified by security reasons” and “assured Al-Masri an immediate and protected return, without the possibility of being arrested,” Gianassi said.
Accounting to parliament on Feb. 5, the week after Al-Masri’s release, the two ministers failed to disclose the ministerial meetings where the case was discussed and where the strategy of not pushing ahead with the case in Italy was adopted, the report noted.
The ministers and cabinet secretary acted on “mere political opportunism, based on generic fears and not backed up by concrete evidence, which shows the Italian government’s weakness in front of armed gangs that operate abroad and violate human rights,” Gianassi told the committee deciding on ministerial prosecutions on Wednesday.
If the ministers are protected from standing trial as expected because of Meloni’s majority, Al-Masri’s alleged victims could then appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Prosecutors at the ICC have also called on judges to open infraction proceedings against the Italian government that would refer Italy to the U.N. Security Council for violating its international obligations. A ruling is expected in the next few months.
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