Italy's interior minister announced Thursday that a Libyan man who was detained on an international war crimes arrest warrant and later unexpectedly released was quickly deported due to his “social danger.”
Osama Nazim, also known as al-Masri, was detained in Turin on Sunday on an arrest warrant issued by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
Nazim, head of Libya's judicial police, is wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as rape and murder. He also presides over Mitiga Prison, a facility near Tripoli that has been accused by human rights groups of arbitrary detention, torture and abuse of political dissidents, migrants and refugees.
He was released on Tuesday due to procedural issues and flew to Tripoli on an official state plane. The ICC said on Wednesday that he had been released from custody and extradited to Libya by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government “without prior notice or consultation with the courts” and demanded an explanation.
“Following the fact that the arrest was not justified, we have issued the expulsion order on national security grounds, taking into account that the Libyan national poses a danger to society,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said in a statement. .
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani downplayed the ICC's opposition, telling reporters that the international tribunal is “not the word of God and not the fountain of all truth.”
“Italy is a sovereign country and we make our own decisions,” he added.
Mr. Nazim is a brigadier general in the Libyan judicial police, and the ICC has accused him of crimes against humanity and war crimes at Mitiga prison.
Meloni's government relies heavily on Libyan security forces to prevent would-be migrants from leaving the North African country for southern Italy.
Piantedosi told lawmakers during question period in the Senate that Rome's appeals court had ordered Nazim's release because it considered his arrest to be in breach of procedure.
An Interior Ministry official earlier told Reuters that he was released because local police did not immediately report the required arrest to the Justice Ministry.
Opposition parties said Piantedosi's explanation was insufficient and called on Prime Minister Meloni to come to parliament to explain.
Senator Giuseppe de Cristofaro of the Green Left Alliance party said: “You are bringing our country to complete disgrace and you are speaking on a technicality, but you are making accurate political choices.” said.
