Rome ignores ICC arrest warrant for Libyan, sending him home to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli

Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, yesterday, shared a video message on social media saying that she has been placed under investigation for her role in letting a Libyan citizen travel back to Libya despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ms Meloni said prosecutors are investigating her for “embezzlement and aiding and abetting a crime”. Attempting to distance herself from the fiasco, she said it was the ICC’s fault because the Court failed to send the arrest warrant to Italy’s Justice Ministry. This, she said, prompted her to intervene, authorising his departure on a government plane to Libya. If the warrant did not reach the Ministry of Justice why was the subject detained in the first place?

However, the ICC said it did communicate the warrant to the relevant authorities not only in Italy but in other five European States who are party to the Rome Statue that established the ICC in 1998.

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The whole controversy erupted when, on 19 January, Italian police in the northern city of Turin detained a Libyan top police official named Osama Najim – commonly known as Osama Al-Masri. He was detained in his hotel room after attending a football match the previous evening in which his favourite club, AC Milan, lost 2-0 to Juventus. Mr Al-Masri is wanted by the ICC, accused of rape, torture and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison, east of the Libya capital, Tripoli, starting as earlier as 2015. Amnesty International, after his release from Italian detention, issued a statement accusing him of “unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and other crimes under international law”. Mediterranea Saving Humans, an NGO active in saving illegal migrants from the Mediterranean Sea condemned Italy’s “shameful” decision to let Mr. Al-Masri go, instead of honouring the ICC’s arrest warrant.

Mr. Al-Masri also happened to be the head of Tripoli’s Judicial Police which controls notorious network of prisons in which both Libyans and foreign illegal migrants are kept and said to be inhumanely treated on Al-Masri’s orders. The ICC is believed to have acted upon many complaints it received from both Libyan individuals, victims of Mr. Al-Masri’s militia and NGOs based outside Libya.

Local sources familiar with the case told MEMO that Mr. Al-Masri, before arriving in Italy, did visit at least another two EU countries, including Greece and Switzerland. The ICC did say that its warrant for his arrest was sent to the judicial authorities in five EU countries, probably in anticipation that he might fall within their jurisdiction and be handed to the ICC to stand trial. After news broke that he was let go, the ICC Prosecutor’s office immediately issued another arrest warrant for him, hoping that he could be transferred to The Hague based Court in the future, should he be caught.

Since taking office, Prime Minister Meloni, has targeted the flow of illegal migrants from North Africa, with Italy being their nearest landing spot. The far right politician has been an avid opponent of accommodating illegal migrants. She has also complained to the EU about not doing enough to help Italy combat human traffickers in the region.

Her migration focus shifted to Libya and Tunisia, encouraging both countries to prevent people from sailing north and to return anyone who is caught in the process. Since 2022, Ms. Meloni has visited Libya and Tunisia four times, each describing the relationships between Rome and Tripoli, as well as the EU, as strategically important for shared security, economic cooperation, stemming the flow of illegal, mostly African, migrants and combating organised crimes, including human trafficking across the Mediterranean. However, reducing or ending the flow of migrants has always been the focus of the entire far right political parties in Italy, including Ms. Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, Brothers of Italy, political party.

Italy has also been cooperating with the militias-dominated Tripoli government as they struggle to control the Mediterranean route of migrants. Rome has helped the Tripoli militias with cash, technical help and coastguard training.

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Rome is regularly accused of turning a blind eye over the abuses committed by Tripoli militias against illegal migrants caught attempting to across the sea into EU. Most of them, after being forcibly returned to Libya, face humiliation, torture and ill treatment before they were let go or deported to their countries of origin.

Meloni’s deputy and political ally, Matteo Salvini, was acquitted on 20 December, 2024 after he was accused in 2019 of ”kidnapping and dereliction of duty”  because, back then, he refused to  let a rescue boat with 147 migrants onboard dock in Italy. The boat remained at sea for three weeks until the Italian prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, in Sicily ordered the ship to be seized, eventually allowing migrants onboard to disembark.

The Al-Masri case highlights how the migration issue is critical to the far right Italian political class and beyond and to reduce the numbers making it to Italian islands is a critical electoral issue. Meloni and Salvini have both campaigned on anti-immigration platforms and they feel obliged to deliver on their promises to limit the number of foreign migrants arriving into the country.

Desperate to ban illegal migrants and asylum seekers, Italy signed, in 2023, a controversial agreement with neighbouring Albania allowing Italy to send hundreds of migrants intercepted in international waters. The idea is to keep them out of Italy, while their asylum applications are considered. Despite objections from rights groups opposing the treaty on abuse grounds, Rome went ahead and sent the first group of 49 migrants to centres in Albania on 29 January. This is the third attempt by the Rome government, after two previous transfers where blocked by Italian courts.

What really matters to the Italian government and many other EU authorities is to keep people seeking protection or better life out of the EU fortress and what happened to them in Libya or Tunisia or during their perilous journey across the sea is not their concern.

The episode with Al-Masri is also scandalous proof that Italy will not hesitate to violate international law on its own territory. Rome, remember, is the birth place of the ICC, with its establishing statues still carrying its name. For Libya, the failure to arrest Al-Masri by Italy and his hero’s welcome when he arrived in Tripoli means impunity will continue to prevail, despite the horrendous crimes committed by armed militias.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.