Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is under investigation by Rome prosecutors over her government’s decision to return a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court back to the north African country.
In a video posted on social media on Tuesday, Meloni said that she, justice minister Carlo Nordio, interior minister Matteo Piantedosi and other government officials were being investigated in connection with the case.
The Libyan warlord, Osama Elmasry Njeem, was arrested in Turin this month by Italian police acting on an ICC warrant, but was freed and returned to Libya on an Italian government plane a few days later.
The ICC expressed dismay at Italy’s failure to hand over Njeem, who was wanted to stand trial for crimes against humanity in connection with alleged murders, and cases of torture and sexual assault committed at a detention centre that he had overseen for nearly a decade.
In her video, Meloni defended her government’s handling of the case.
“I cannot be blackmailed — I will not allow myself to be intimidated,” she said. “I intend to carry on my way to defend Italians — especially when the security of the nation is at stake — with my head held high and without fear.”
Njeem’s arrest, according to Meloni, had not followed proper procedures, which required the justice ministry to be informed in advance when a suspect wanted by the ICC was taken into custody in Italy.
As a result of these bureaucratic errors, she said Italy’s appeals court refused to validate Njeem’s continued detention and ordered him to be freed. At that point, she said, her government opted to deport him by military plane — given the threat that he posed to public security.
International human rights groups and opposition parties expressed their outrage, saying that a man sought to stand trial for such grave crimes should never have been released on a technicality.
Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi is leading the probe into whether Meloni and the accused ministers can be pursued for embezzlement and aiding and abetting, following up on a complaint filed by a lawyer. Under Italian law, prosecutors must notify ministers that they are the subject of such complaints and complete preliminary investigations within 90 days.
Lo Voi’s notification comes amid rising tensions between Meloni’s government and the Italian judiciary, as her rightwing coalition seeks an overhaul of the way it operates.
The launch of the probe sent shockwaves throughout Italy’s political establishment.
Defence minister Guido Crosetto defended his boss saying that he had warned for years that the judiciary was “the major political opposition to this government”.
Former prime minister Matteo Renzi suggested that Meloni was seeking to whip up a public furore over a routine act of due process after a public complaint against her was filed.
“I have the impression that Giorgia Meloni wants to ride on this notice of investigation — which is a procedural act — to feed her natural victim complex,” Renzi wrote in a post. “The handling of the . . . affair for us is not a crime: it is worse, it is a mistake.”
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi