MILAN (AP) 鈥� Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation against Premier Giorgia Meloni and two government ministers for repatriating a wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the premier announced Tuesday.
Meloni revealed the investigation over allegedly aiding and abetting Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, in a video posted on social media. She said her justice and interior ministers and an under-secretary are also targeted in the investigation.
Meloni鈥檚 government has been under fire from the opposition, human rights groups and the ICC itself for releasing al-Masri on a technicality after he was arrested in the northern city of Turin on a warrant from the international court.
Meloni said she presumes that the investigation was prompted by a complaint from an opposition politician. In Italy, prosecutors must launch investigations based on complaints, and it is up to a preliminary hearing judge to decide whether charges are filed or not. The process can take months if not longer.
Italy arrested al-Masri in Turin, where he had attended a soccer match, on Jan. 19, the day after the ICC鈥檚 arrest warrant was issued. He was expelled on a government plane on Jan. 21, after a court failed to confirm his arrest.
Meloni complained in the social media post that the warrant was issued upon his arrival in Italy 鈥渁fter having stayed for around 12 days in three other European countries.鈥�
She said the international arrest warrant had not been transmitted to the Justice Ministry as required by law 鈥渁nd for this reason the Appeals Court in Rome decided not to confirm the arrest.鈥�
鈥淎t this point, this subject was free in Italian territory, and rather than letting him free, we decided to expel and repatriate him immediately for security reasons with a flight, as happens in other similar cases,鈥欌�� Meloni said.
Meloni expressed indignation at the investigation, adding: 鈥淚 cannot be blackmailed. I will not be intimidated.鈥�
Also under investigation are Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, as well as under-secretary Alfredo Mantovani.
Piantedosi is scheduled to respond to lawmakers' questions about the case on Wednesday. He told the Senate last week that he expelled al-Masri 鈥渇or urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject."
accused al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya starting in 2015 that are punishable with life in prison.
The ICC said he was accused of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence. It said the warrant was transmitted to member states, including Italy, on Jan. 18, and that the court had also provided real-time information that he had entered Europe. The court said it had reminded Italy at the time to contact it 鈥渨ithout delay鈥� if it ran into any problems cooperating with the warrant.
Al-Masri leads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Deterrence Forces.
Like many other militias in western Libya, the SDF has been implicated in atrocities in the civil war that followed the overthrow and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Recently, the International Criminal Court鈥檚 chief prosecutor issued arrest warrants over alleged crimes in Libya beyond the civil war, including in detention facilities where human rights groups have documented abuses.
Colleen Barry, The Associated Press
