Italy defends expulsion of Libyan war crimes suspect

24/1/2025 6:23

Italy's interior minister said on Thursday a Libyan man detained under an international war crimes arrest warrant and then unexpectedly released had been

swiftly repatriated because of his "social dangerousness".



Osama Elmasry Njeem, also known as Osama Almasri Njeem, was detained on Sunday in Turin under an arrest warrant issued by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), which said he was suspected of crimes including the murder, torture and rape of detainees in Libya.



He was freed on Tuesday due to what an Italian interior ministry source said was a legal technicality and flown on an official state aircraft to Tripoli. The ICC demanded an explanation, saying it had not been consulted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government.



"Following the non-validation of the arrest ... considering that the Libyan citizen ... presented a profile of social dangerousness ... I adopted an expulsion order for reasons of State security," Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said.