Italy must explain the reasons for the release of Libyan General Njeem Osama Almasri Habish, which occurred "without warning or consultation".

The International Criminal Court is on the offensive after seeing the surrender of a man it wanted to arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity fall through. All the opposition parties are also on the warpath, accusing the government of having freed "a torturer".

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi will report on the case to Parliament next week.

Another controversial arrest, therefore, for Italy, just over a month after that of the Iranian Mohammed Abedini Najafabadi. The outcome was similar: release and repatriation. In this last case, however, there was no formal intervention by the government, but it was the Court of Appeal of Rome that found irregularities in the arrest and ordered the release.

Like Abedini, Njeem is not a second-rate pawn of the Libyan institutions. He is the head of the Judicial Police and operates under the direct functional dependencies of the judiciary and of the national Attorney General, Sadiq Al-Sur, who is delegated the investigation of many crimes, usually serious, committed in the country. He works with the Deterrence Apparatus for the fight against terrorism and organized crime (Rada) which, among other things, manages the Mittiga prison, where hundreds of criminals and terrorists are still locked up. A prominent figure, therefore, of a government with which Italy has consolidated relations on various dossiers, from migratory flows to oil, to gas.

The Hague Court last Saturday, by majority vote, issued - following the request made last October 2 by the organization's prosecutor - an arrest warrant for the Libyan general for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the prison of Mittiga, near Tripoli, since February 2011. Njeem was located in Turin on January 19 and arrested.

"The suspect - the Court said - was held in custody pending the completion of the procedures necessary for his surrender. At the request of and in full respect of the Italian authorities, the Court has deliberately refrained from commenting publicly on the arrest. On 21 January, without prior notice or consultation with the Court, Almasri was reportedly released and returned to Libya. The Court is seeking, and has not yet received, verification from the authorities of the steps taken". It is the duty of all States, the judges in The Hague warn, "to cooperate fully with the Court in its investigations and prosecutions for crimes".

It was the judges of the Court of Appeal of Rome who did not validate the arrest because it was not preceded by a conversation with the Minister of Justice, who is in charge of relations with the ICC. The man was therefore released on Tuesday evening and repatriated to Tripoli on a state flight, for reasons of urgency and security, given the dangerousness of the subject and the risks of a possible transport on a scheduled flight, it is learned. After landing, he was carried in triumph by dozens of his supporters who welcomed him joyfully, as can be seen in videos posted on Libyan social media.

But how does Najeem get to Italy? Last Saturday, as far as we know, he arrived from Germany, where he rented a car and asked the rental company to return it to Fiumicino. The same day the Court issued the warrant and the man thus became a wanted man without knowing it. In the evening he went to the stadium to watch Juventus-Milan. The next day he was arrested by the Digos and taken to the Vallette prison, where he spent two nights before returning to Libya.

THE OPPOSITION – The opposition is up in arms, and in the afternoon they held a joint press conference, asking the Prime Minister to report to Parliament. "Meloni - says Democratic Party secretary Elly Schlein - declared war on human traffickers across the globe, they arrested one and took him home. A very opaque affair". Njeem, observes Nicola Fratoianni (Avs) is "a war criminal", but he was freed with the "complicity of our government, of the competent minister" and "of the Presidency of the Council". To date, for Riccardo Ricciardi (M5S) "the only repatriation carried out by the Meloni government was to bring home a criminal and trample on international law. It is not acceptable". Matteo Renzi (Iv), addresses Nordio: "he is a dangerous criminal and you are not hunting him, in fact you are taking him home on an Intelligence plane. Am I the only one who says you are crazy?". Riccardo Magi (+E) sees in the release from prison "the enormous, boundless weakness of a State and its blackmail".

(Online Union)

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