The government has asked for more
time before it presents observations requested by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) on the case of Libyan General
Osama Almasri, who was arrested by Italian authorities on
January 19 on an ICC warrant on charges of war crimes and crimes
against humanity but was released two days later and flown back
to Tripoli on a State flight, ANSA has learned.
The Pre-Trial Chamber, a judicial body of the ICC, had urged
Rome to provide by Monday all the information on why Almasri was
not handed over to the court.
It also called on Italy to present observations over the fact
that Almasri was not searched and the material in his possession
was not seized.
The executive's request is connected to the fact that it still
waiting for the outcome of a probe into the case which is
currently being carried out by the Tribunal of Ministers tasked
with investigating cabinet members.
The Tribunal of Ministers is probing what happened between the
arrest on an ICC warrant of the Libyan general at a hotel in
Turin at dawn on January 19 and his return to Tripoli on a State
flight following his release by the appeals court in Rome on
January 21.
Almasri is wanted for allegedly torturing, raping and murdering
migrants as young as five since 2015.
The release was ordered after Justice Minister Nordio did not
respond to the tribunal's request to back the arrest.
Premier Giorgia Meloni, Nordio - over his alleged refusal to
perform public acts - Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and
Cabinet Undersecretary with the intelligence brief Alfredo
Mantovano are under investigation in the case after attorney
Luigi Li Gotti filed a criminal complaint against them.
Li Gotti, a former centre-left justice undersecretary and
earlier a neo-Fascist party member, filed the complaint to the
State Attorney's Office in Rome on presumed charges of aiding
and abetting and embezzlement, due to the use of a secret
services flight to take Almasri back to Libya.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has blamed errors in the ICC
warrants, which he described as a "mess", while Interior
Minister Matteo Piantedosi has said Rome was forced to expel the
general as a danger to Italy.
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