Italy’s prime minister took to social media on Tuesday to announce that she is being investigated but sounded a defiant note: “I cannot be blackmailed,” Giorgia Meloni said. “I will not let myself be intimidated.” Italian prosecutors are looking into the alleged role Meloni played in the release from Italian custody of Osama Elmasry Njeem. The Libyan ran a number of prisons that the New York Times reports were “known for their inhumane conditions” and was wanted on war crime charges. He was arrested at a hotel in Turin on Jan. 19 on an international warrant issued by the Hague’s International Criminal Court but was released and transported to Tripoli two days later on a government plane.
The International Criminal Court protested the move and asked Italy to explain its actions; human rights groups and opposition leaders accused Meloni of playing nice with Libya so that it will continue to help prevent migrants from sailing to Italy. In her social media video, Meloni explained Njeem’s release, saying the Italian justice ministry had not received the ICC arrest warrant. As such, she said, the arrest was invalid, and the decision was made to return Njeem to Libya due to security concerns as “at this point, this subject was free in Italian territory,” per the AP.
Still, the Times writes that “even some of Ms. Meloni’s critics were surprised by the investigation into the prime minister,” with one calling the probe “surreal.” Meloni said Italy’s justice and interior ministers and interior under secretary are also being investigated. The Times notes that Meloni has branded the ICC’s decision to issue the arrest warrant just as Njeem headed into Italy as “curious,” saying he had just spent nearly two weeks in three other European countries. The BBC reports she also suggested political motives were at play as the lawyer who filed the complaint, Luigi Li Gotti, is a former left-wing politician. (More Giorgia Meloni stories.)
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