DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni says she is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and embezzlement in connection with the case of a Libyan man suspected of war crimes.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she has been placed under judicial investigation over her country’s surprise release of a Libyan police officer wanted by the International Criminal Court.
In a video message posted to social media on Tuesday, Meloni said she is suspected of aiding and abetting a crime and embezzlement in connection to the case of Osama Elmasry Njeem, also known as Osama Almasri Njeem, who is suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as murder, torture and rape.
Meloni pushed back on allegations of wrongdoing, saying that “she will not be blackmailed, and that she will not be intimidated over an investigation”.
Meloni says that prosecutors had also placed Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters under investigation.
Italy detained Njeem in the city of Turin earlier this month, but the government unexpectedly released him two days later. He was then flown on an official state aircraft to Tripoli. Njeem is the head of the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious Libyan network of detention centres run by the government-backed Special Defence Force.
Njeem is believed to have been in charge of Tripoli’s Mitiga detention centre, and is wanted on charges including murder, rape and sexual violence and torture committed since February 15, 2015.
Meloni said the case was being led by the same prosecutor who investigated Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in Sicily for allegedly kidnapping 100 migrants aboard a boat that he had blocked at sea for nearly three weeks in 2019. Salvini was acquitted in that case last month.