Giorgia Meloni has said she is under investigation in connection with Italy’s unexpected release and repatriation last week of a Libyan general who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court.
The Italian prime minister said in a video message posted on social media that she is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and embezzlement in connection with the case of Libya’s chief of judicial police, Osama Najim – also called Almasri.
Meloni wrote the following beneath the Instagram video: “What is valid today, was valid yesterday: I am not blackmailable, I am not intimidated. Onwards and upwards.”
The far-right politician said that Rome prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, had also placed under investigation the justice minister, Carlo Nordio; interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi; and Alfredo Mantovano, cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters.
The investigation, she said, followed a legal complaint brought by Luigi Li Gotti, a lawyer and “former leftwing politician very close to [former prime minister] Romano Prodi” who is known for defending mafia turncoats.
Meloni also noted that Lo Voi was the same prosecutor involved in the “failed trial” against the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini. Salvini, who leads the far-right League, was acquitted in December on charges of kidnapping and dereliction of duty after he blocked a migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people onboard at sea for days.
Italy caused widespread controversy last week over the release of Najim, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as alleged rape and murder.
He was arrested in Turin on the warrant issued by the court before being unexpectedly released on a technicality and swiftly repatriated to a hero’s welcome.
Rome’s court of appeal did not validate the ICC warrant after the arrest was declared to be “irregular” by the city’s attorney general because it had not been preceded by discussions with Nordio.
Piantedosi said Najim had been sent back to Tripoli because he “presented a profile of social dangerousness”.
Najim is wanted for the alleged crimes committed during his management of Mitiga prison, a facility near Tripoli condemned by human rights organisations for the arbitrary detention, torture and abuse of political dissidents, migrants and refugees. Many migrants and refugees have presented evidence to the ICC.