Rome Says It Released Libyan Officer Due To Mistakes in ICC Warrant.

By Ferdinad Olise

Osama Elmasry Njeem, a Libyan military officer wanted by the International Criminal court for alleged war crimes, was recently freed by Rome.

The move ignited outrage among Italian opposition parties and prompted a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Now, Italy’s justice minister is defending the decision, alleging there were mistakes and inaccuracies in the ICC’s arrest warrant.

The official insisted there was ‘’uncertainty’’ in the document over when Njeem was thought to have perpetrated the alleged crimes.

He stated that the warrant implied they started in February 2011, and later spoke of February 2015.

The minister called on the court to provide explanations for the alleged inconsistencies.

The ICC, meanwhile, has urged explanations over why Njeem was released, accusing Italy’s government of letting him go without any discussions.

The court has been looking into accusations of war crimes committed in Libya since the country’s 2011 civil war.

When Italian police officers swooped into a Holiday Inn in Turin in northern Italy and arrested a guest — the director of several Libyan prisons known for their inhumane conditions — they were acting on a warrant from the International Criminal Court.

The warrant against the man, Osama Elmasry Njeem, said he was suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence.

But two days after the arrest last Sunday, the Italian police released Mr. Njeem and escorted him back to Libya on a government plane. Pictures soon emerged on Libyan news media showing him cheerfully descending the aircraft bearing the Italian flag.

His release has enraged the International Criminal Court and has alarmed human rights groups and Italy’s political opposition, which accused the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of cozying up to the Libyan authorities because it relies on Libya to keep migrants away from Italian shores.

“You sent this man back for political reasons,” Peppe De Cristoforo, an opposition lawmaker, told Italy’s interior minister in Parliament on Thursday. “Unfortunately the Libyan authority is complicit with the Italian government.”

Ms. Meloni’s government has denied those accusations and attributed the release to procedural reasons. The Italian police, the authorities said, arrested Mr. Njeem before receiving an official request to do so from the justice ministry, violating the procedure and invalidating the arrest.

By the time the justice minister finished assessing the I.C.C.’s warrant, Mr. Njeem was already on his way home, government officials said.

Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, said Mr. Njeem had been expelled “for security reasons” because he was considered “dangerous.”

Asked whether the release was related to Italy’s “subordination” to Libya because of agreements on migrants, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, told Italian reporters that “there is no subordination to anyone.”