Meloni’s release of a suspected Libyan war criminal has ignited a heated debate in Italian politics [Getty/file photo]
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni insisted on Thursday that a probe into her role in the release of a Libyan war crime suspect was politically motivated, fuelling a furious debate.
The far-right prime minister this week announced that she and two senior ministers were under investigation over the release of Osama Almasri Najim, the head of Libya’s judicial police who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Najim’s case had already caused a major political row in Italy, with opposition parties demanding answers about how a man wanted on charges including murder, rape and torture relating to his management of Libya’s Mitiga Prison had been set free.
Meloni appeared to be referring to a notification she received of a complaint passed by a Rome prosecutor to a special court that considers cases against ministers.
Legal organisations are divided over whether the prosecutor was obliged to pass on the complaint, made by a lawyer, or could have rejected it.
But Meloni insisted on Thursday that passing it to the court was “clearly a deliberate act. Everyone knows that the prosecutors of these things have their discretion”.
Addressing an event in Milan via videolink, she said news of the investigation had damaged Italy’s image on the international stage.
More broadly, she said the actions of “politicised magistrates” were “not normal”, adding: “Some judges, fortunately few… want to govern.”
Libya torture charges
Najim was detained in Turin, northern Italy, on January 19 on an ICC warrant, only to be released and flown home to Tripoli on an Italian air force plane two days later.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi later said the government deported Najim as he was considered too dangerous to remain in Italy, after a court ruled he could not be held.
But the court itself said it had released him because ICC requests must first pass through Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, and the latter had “sent no request on the matter”.
Meloni revealed in a Facebook video on Tuesday that she, Piantedosi and Nordio had received notice of an investigation for crimes of aiding and abetting the release, and embezzlement.
She said the prosecutor involved had previously brought a case against her deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, and added: “I cannot be blackmailed, I will not be intimidated.”
Italy’s National Association of Magistrates (ANM) said there had been a “total misunderstanding” of the role of the prosecutor, who it said was obliged by law to pass complaints against ministers to the court, without investigating them.
The notice received by Meloni and her ministers was a communication given to interested parties so they can present information or ask to be heard, it added.
However, Francesco Petrelli, head of Italy’s association of criminal lawyers, the UCPI, disagreed.
“There are no automatic mechanisms in putting someone (on) the register of those under investigation,” he said Thursday.
If there was no discretion involved, “the Court of Ministers would evidently be overwhelmed… by reports of complaints and responses presented by citizens”.
‘Playing the victim’
The special court of ministers will now assess the complaint against Meloni and the others, but would need parliament’s approval to proceed.
Former premier Giuseppe Conte, leader of the now opposition Five Star Movement, said he had received numerous notices similar to Meloni’s while in office, but they came to nothing.
“Her goal is to distract us and present herself as the victim of a plot,” he said this week.
Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, also accused Meloni on Thursday of “playing the victim” and demanded she explain the whole Libyan affair in parliament.
She said the prime minister was blaming judges “to not talk about the merits of the issue – the political choice to send home a Libyan torturer”.
Meloni has previously criticised judges who challenged her efforts to stop irregular migration, while her hard-right government is facing opposition, including from the ANM, to its judicial reforms.
