Italy’s lower house of parliament on Thursday blocked efforts to prosecute three senior ministers over the controversial release of a Libyan general wanted for war crimes.
The vote, which saw lawmakers reject the request by more than 2-to-1, reflects the firm control held by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing majority and shields her top allies from potential criminal proceedings in the so-called Al-Masri affair.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano were accused of aiding and abetting the escape of Osama Al-Masri Njeem, a Libyan general accused of crimes against humanity including torture, rape and murder by the International Criminal Court during his tenure as head of Libya’s judicial police.
The Rome Tribunal of Ministers, the judicial body responsible for overseeing charges against ministers for acts committed in office, had petitioned parliament in August to lift the trio’s immunity and allow prosecutors to move forward with charges over Al-Masri’s release in January — but the bid was rejected Thursday.
The plenary result — 251, 256 and 252 votes in favor of denying the tribunal’s request for Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano, respectively — confirmed expectations that the governing coalition would close ranks. The secret ballot, however, and a handful of votes from opposition deputies meant the final totals slightly exceeded the government’s formal majority. Meloni was also in the chamber during the decision.
“I’m satisfied, because the result went even beyond what the governing majority had expected numerically: This means that even within parts of the opposition there is some reluctance to hand over to public prosecutors responsibilities that should be purely political,” Nordio said after the vote.
Al-Masri was arrested at a Turin hotel on Jan. 19 on an ICC warrant but was released two days later after a Rome appeals court cited a procedural lapse as Nordio’s ministry had not responded to the court’s request to confirm the arrest. Italian authorities subsequently arranged for Al-Masri’s repatriation to Tripoli aboard a state aircraft.
Prosecutors alleged that the three officials authorized the transfer out of concern that extraditing Al-Masri to The Hague could trigger reprisals against Italian citizens or commercial interests in Libya. Nordio also faced an additional charge of failure to perform official duties.
The investigation into Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano began in late January following a complaint by lawyer Luigi Li Gotti, who also named Meloni in his complaint. However, the prime minister was formally cleared in August.
Meloni denounced the proceedings against her ministers as “absurd,” arguing that the government acts collectively. “Every choice, especially so important, is agreed. It is therefore absurd to ask that Piantedosi, Nordio and Mantovano, and not me, go to trial before them,” she said.
Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party has maintained that the ministers acted appropriately to safeguard national security. Piantedosi said earlier this year that Al-Masri’s expulsion was “necessary” because the Libyan “posed a serious threat.”
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