An investigation has been launched into Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after she repatriated a Libyan warlord wanted on an international arrest warrant, she said on Tuesday.
Ossama Anjem, also known as Ossama al Masri, was arrested in Turin on 19 January but was freed and put on a repatriation flight days later.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya‘s Mitiga prison from 2015 onwards.
ICC prosecutors have accused him of murder, torture, rape, and sexual violence.
Ms Meloni has come under fire for releasing al Masri on what’s been termed a technicality,
In a video on social media, she claimed the arrest warrant had not been properly communicated with the Italian justice ministry, as is required by law.
She claims the ICC issued the warrant after al Masri had been in three other European countries for around 12 days.
Ms Meloni sanctioned his repatriation on a government plane on 21 January.
“At this point, this subject was free in Italian territory, and rather than letting him free, we decided to expel and repatriate him immediately for security reasons with a flight, as happens in other similar cases,” she said in the video.
She added that she “cannot be blackmailed” and “will not be intimidated”.
Her justice minister Carlo Nordio, interior minister Matte Piantedosi, and undersecretary Alfredo Mantovani are also part of the investigation.
Read more from Sky News
Ex-French president on trial over Gaddafi charges
Many feared dead in Indian stampede
Palestinians walk back to destroyed homes
Ms Meloni claims the probe was sparked by a complaint from a member of the opposition.
In Italy, prosecutors are obliged to investigate all complaints – and it is then up to the preliminary hearing judge whether a case is filed or not.
Interior minister Mr Piantedosi will face questions on the matter in parliament on Wednesday.
He told the senate last week al Masri was repatriated “for urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject”.
Al Masri is the head of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution in Tripoli – a network of notorious detention centres run by the government-backed Special Deterrence Forces (SDF).
Like other militias in Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities committed in the country since Muammar Gaddafi’s death in 2011.
