Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation against Premier Giorgia Meloni and two government ministers for repatriating a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the premier announced on Tuesday.
Ms Meloni revealed the investigation, which claims she allegedly aided and abetted 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.
Ms Meloni’s 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.
Ms 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.
Italian police arrested al-Masri in Turin, where he had attended a football match, on January 19, the day after the ICC’s arrest warrant was issued.
He was expelled on a government plane on January 21, after a court failed to confirm his arrest.
Ms Meloni complained in the social media post that the warrant was issued upon his arrival in Italy “after having stayed for around 12 days in three other European countries”.
She said the international arrest warrant had not been transmitted to the Justice Ministry as required by law “and for this reason, the Appeals Court in Rome decided not to confirm the arrest”.
“At 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,” Ms Meloni said.
Ms Meloni expressed indignation at the investigation, adding: “I cannot be blackmailed. I will not be intimidated.”
Also under investigation are Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, as well as undersecretary Alfredo Mantovani.
Mr Piantedosi is scheduled to respond to politicians’ questions about the case on Wednesday. He told the Senate last week that he expelled al-Masri “for urgent security reasons, with my expulsion order, in view of the danger posed by the subject”.
The ICC warrant accused al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya starting in 2015 that are punishable by 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 January 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 “without delay” if it ran into any problems co-operating with the warrant.
Al-Masri leads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centres run by the government-backed Special Deterrence Forces (SDF).
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 long-time Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
Recently, the International Criminal Court’s 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.
