Libya warlord arrested in Italy on warrant from the International Criminal Court, but then expelled

ROME — Italian police arrested a Libyan warlord on a warrant from the International Criminal Court, but an Italian tribunal refused to approve the arrest and he was instead sent back to Libya, Italy’s state-run RAI television reported.

Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force. The SDF acts as a military police unit combating high-profile crimes including kidnappings, murders as well as illegal migration.

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’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.

Italian newspapers Avvenire and La Stampa had reported that al-Masri was arrested in Turin on Sunday on an warrant from The Hague-based court after he attended a Juventus-Milan soccer match the night before.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the court had requested al-Masiri’s arrest and that it was being evaluated by prosecutors. But RAI state television said late Tuesday that the Turin tribunal had declined to approve the arrest, and that al-Masri had been released from prison and was sent back to Libya.

Al-Masri’s arrest had posed a dilema for Italy, because it has close ties to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli as well as energy interests in the country. Additionally, any trial in The Hague of al-Masri could bring unwanted attention to Italy’s migration policies and its support of the Libyan coast guard, which it has financed to prevent migrants from leaving.

Human rights groups have documented gross abuses in the Libyan detention facilities where migrants are kept, and have accused Italy of being complicit in their mistreatment.

Nello Scavo, an Italian journalist who has documented atrocities against migrants and broke the story of al-Masri’s arrest, was not surprised that Italy let al-Masri go but said it amounted to a failure of Italy’s obligations under international law to turn him over to the court.

Italy is a founding member of the International Criminal Court and hosted the 1998 Rome conference that gave birth to it.

Italy’s failure to hand him over “makes one wonder what the real power relations are between Italy and Libya,” he said in a message to AP. “If internationally wanted persons can obtain through legal subterfuge safe conduct in a G7 country like Italy, then words like law and international justice are emptied of all meaning, to the detriment of the weakest and the democracies.”

Amnesty International had called on Italy to promptly hand al-Masri over to the ICC, saying it had documented “horrific violations committed with total impunity” in the Libyan prisons, including torture, unlawful killings and forced disappearances.

“With no prospect of domestic accountability in Libya of powerful commanders of militias, Italy, and all members of the international community, must pursue justice for crimes under international law,” Amnesty said in a statement before news of al-Masri’s release and expulsion was made public.

The Hague-based court has issued a handful of new warrants against Libyans in the past year after opening an investigation into Libya in 2011 at the request of the U.N. Security Council. In October, it unsealed arrest warrants against six men, but other warrants have remained sealed. Al-Masri’s name doesn’t appear on any of the public warrants.

The ICC says it currently has 11 arrest warrants, for which seven people are still at large. In a recent report, the ICC prosecutor’s office said it expected to issue new warrants in 2025 related to crimes in detention facilities.

Libya has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Currently, it is governed by Abdul-Hami Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli and by the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad in the east.

Western Libya is controlled by an array of lawless militias allied with Dbeibah’s government, while forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter control the east and south.

Mediterranea Saving Humans, a humanitarian organization that has denounced the atrocities against migrants in Libyan detention centers, said al-Masri’s arrest followed “years of complaints and testimonies from victims made to the International Criminal Court, which conducted a difficult investigation.”

The group has long condemned the Italian government’s financial support of Libya’s coast guard.

“He was hiding in Italy, of course, because here the traffickers feel safe,” the group said in a statement, suggesting that Italian authorities didn’t want the information to be released but that it leaked out thanks to reporting by the Avvenire journalist Scavo.