A "null" act, a "mess of the International Criminal Court", of which "I am not the rubber stamp". Thus the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio in his report to the Chamber on the Almasri case, the Libyan torturer freed and repatriated despite the international arrest warrant issued by the ICC.

" On January 18 - Nordio began - the ICC issued an international arrest warrant against Almasri for a series of crimes. The arrest warrant arrived on Sunday, January 19 at 9:30 with an informal notice and the arrest was transmitted via email by an Interpol official at 12:37, also on Sunday: an absolutely informal communication, without identifying data and without the provision in question and the underlying reasons . The extradition request was not even attached".

Nordio stressed that on January 20, the prosecutor of the Court of Appeal of Rome transmitted "the complex correspondence" on Almasri's arrest to the Ministry of Justice at 11:40. " At 1:57, our ambassador in The Hague transmitted the request for provisional arrest to the ministry. The communication from the police headquarters to the ministry occurred after the arrest had already been made ."

"The minister is not an urgent transit body for requests," Nordio stressed, "it is a political body that must consider the content of these requests in light of possible contact with other ministries and state organ functions. I am not the ICC's rubber stamp, I have the power to interact with other state organs in case of need and this need certainly arose . Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate the coherence of the conclusions reached by the ICC's decision."

A coherence that for Nordio «is completely lacking». An act, the minister underlined again, «null, in English (and here the chamber made noise) without translation and with various attachments in Arabic» .

In the ICC documentation, Nordio added, there are "about sixty paragraphs in which there is the entire sequence of horrible crimes charged to the person being arrested, there is an incomprehensible logical leap. The conclusions of the arrest warrant were different compared to the motivational part and to the conclusions".

An arrest warrant with " a series of critical issues that would have made it impossible for the ministry to immediately comply with the request, starting with the date on which the crimes allegedly occurred. It says starting from March 2015 but in the preamble it spoke of February 2011, when Gaddafi was still in power".

The ICC, in short, attacks Nordio, he made "a hasty mess" . "They made a mistake in such a solemn act, it is my intention to ask for justifications on the inconsistencies that it was my duty to report".

The chamber became particularly heated when Nordio spoke about the act in English and when he attacked the magistrates, saying he was "disappointed" by the judges who "did not read the documents and initiated proceedings against the government" . The applause from the majority parties was countered by protests from the opposition, from whose benches shouts of "shame" could be heard, prompting President Fontana to call the deputies to leave.

The speech by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi was briefer, and he was keen to underline that Almasri «has never been an interlocutor of the government for matters pertaining to the management and fight against the complex migratory phenomenon» and that «there has never been any blackmail of the government» .

"The expulsion of Almasri - Piantedosi added - must be framed (for the dangerousness profile presented by the subject in question) in the needs of safeguarding the security of the State and the protection of public order, which the Government always places at the center of its action, together with the defense of the national interest which is what the State must always adhere to in the objective of avoiding, in any way, damage to the Country and its citizens".

Government benches almost complete for the urgent briefing by ministers Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi. Several members of the executive were present, from Luca Ciriani to Roberto Calderoli, from Gilberto Pichetto Fratin to Adolfo Urso and Tommaso Foti. Notable absentees included Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani.

Elly Schlein focused on the absence of the prime minister, "a lack of respect for Italy". And, regarding Nordio's words: "He admitted that it was a political choice". "Meloni - said the Democratic secretary - has accustomed us to her inconsistency, but here we are talking about national security. You (addressing Nordio, ed.) did not speak as a minister but as a defense attorney for a torturer, the questions you will have to answer are very simple: why did Nordio, who had been informed from the day of his arrest, not respond to the requests of the attorney general? Your inertia caused his release. First he tells us that he was freed because he did not have time to translate some pages into English, then he said that he read them but found some flaws. Well, he admitted that it was a political choice ".

Then the attack: " You did not speak as a minister but as a defense attorney for a torturer. The minister must transmit the documents of the International Criminal Court, you accuse us of not having read the documents, but you have not read the law, Minister Nordio, and you have violated it in front of the country ."

Nordio "scandalous", is the harsh attack by Giuseppe Conte. "We have become the free port and the playland of criminals. You, minister, did not speak as a defense lawyer for Almasri but as an acquittal judge! You should be ashamed. But do you really think that all Italians are idiots? ". The M5s leader also underlined " the great absence of President Meloni, who runs away from Parliament and citizens, an act of institutional cowardice ".

(Unioneonline/L)

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