Italy defends expulsion of Libyan warlord Ossama al-Masri wanted by the International Criminal Court

Italy repatriated a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to security concerns.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi made the comments to lawmakers during a Senate session on Thursday, in the government’s first remarks on its decision to expel instead of hand the warlord over to face charges.

Ossama Anjiem – also known as Ossama al-Masri – was flown back on an Italian government plane back to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where he received a hero’s welcome. He was arrested over the weekend after he attended a football match in Turin.

Piantedosi says al-Masri was repatriated to Tripoli for “urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject”. The interior minister told the Senate, refusing to go into greater detail, citing a scheduled address to lawmakers next week.

Senators were concerned that Rome had ignored its obligations to the ICC – based in The Hague – to turn over wanted criminal suspects. They repeated calls demanding Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni respond to lawmakers in an open question session.

The ICC warrant accuses al-Masri of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya, starting in 2015. The warlord’s crimes are punishable with life in prison.

The ICC says he was accused of a slew of heinous crimes, among them murder, torture and rape. The court said the warrant was transmitted to member states on Saturday, including Italy. The court also provided real-time information that al-Masri had entered Europe.

The court reminded Italy at the time to contact it “without delay” if it ran into any problems cooperating with the warrant. But Rome’s court of appeals ordered al-Masri freed on Tuesday, after which he was sent aboard an aircraft of the Italian secret services back to Libya.

The Rome court cited a “procedural error in his arrest” as the reason for his repatriation.

The ruling said Justice Minister Carlo Nordio should have been informed ahead of time as the justice ministry is the institution which handles all relations with the ICC.

Human rights groups have documented gross abuses in the Libyan detention facilities where migrants are kept. Following al-Masri’s expulsion and return to Libya, they accuse Italy of complicity in their mistreatment.