Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a video released on social media Jan. 28 she has been placed under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office over her government’s surprise release of a Libyan national who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Italian police arrested Osama Najim, the head of the Tripoli government’s Judicial Police, in the city of Turin nine days earlier. Najim, popularly known as “Almasri,” serves as director of a network of detention centers where systematic abuse and human rights violations have been repeatedly documented in a reports by the UN Human Rights Council. Mediterranea Saving Humans NGO stated that the arrest “came after years of complaints and testimonies from victims, which were sent to the International Criminal Court.” Yet Najim was released after just one day, and arrived at Tripoli International Airport on Jan. 21. Queried about the release, Italian authorities cited “procedural irregularities” in his arrest. However, media commentators have widely pointed to Rome’s arrangements with Tripoli to block migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy’s shores.
Both Libya’s rival governments are accused of abusing detained migrants. The worst accusations against Najim concern the facility at Mitiga airbase near Tripoli, where thousands are arbitrariy detained. But the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Jan. 14 expressed alarm over disturbing video footage circulating on social media that appears to show beatings of naked inmates in the Garnada detention facility outside Benghazi, run by the breakaway Libyan government of warlord Khalifa Haftar. (Jurist, Jurist, BBC News, Agenzia Nova, InfoMigrants, PRI)
The ICC has issued several warrants for Libyan officials since opening an investigation into the situation in the country.
Italy justice minister defends decision to release Osama Njeem
Italy’s justice minister on Feb. 5 defended the decision to repatriate accused Libyan war criminal Osama Njeem, blaming an allegedly “flawed” arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Njeem on Jan. 18 for suspected crimes against humanity and war crimes against detainees in Libya from 2015 onwards. (Jurist)
Mass graves discovered in Libya
Libyan authorities announced Feb. 10 that they found nearly 50 bodies in two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, again driving home the persistent dangers faced by migrants seeking passage to Europe through the conflict-ridden nation.
Officials reported that the first mass grave, containing 19 bodies, was found on Feb. 7 at a farm in Kufra. The second grave, discovered two days later following a police raid on a suspected human trafficking site, held at least 30 bodies, though survivors claimed as many as 70 people had been buried there. The search for more remains is ongoing. (Jurist)