Italy's Meloni under investigation over release of Libyan suspect

By Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday she had been placed under judicial investigation following a government decision to release a Libyan police officer wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Osama Elmasry Njeem was freed last week and flown home by an Italian state aircraft just days after being detained in the northern city of Turin under an ICC arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape.

The ICC has demanded an explanation, saying it had not been consulted over the decision to let him go.

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Meloni said in a message posted on social media that she had been placed under investigation by Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Le Voi, for allegedly aiding and abetting a crime and misuse of public funds.

She is under no obligation to resign. Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt, nor mean that formal charges will necessarily follow.

"I will not be blackmailed, I will not allow myself to be intimidated, which may be why I am, let's say, disliked by those who do not want Italy to change and become better," Meloni said in a video posted on her Facebook profile.

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano have also been placed under investigation, Meloni said.

She said she believed the investigation had been triggered by Luigi Li Gotti, a lawyer who announced last week that he had lodged a complaint over both the release of Njeem and the use of an official jet to fly him back to Tripoli.

"What I did was a necessary act. I did it as a matter of dignity both for human rights and for all Italian citizens," Li Gotti told Reuters on Tuesday.

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The interior minister told parliament last week that Njeem had been swiftly repatriated for "reasons of state security".

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Opposition leaders ridiculed his explanation and both Piantedosi and Nordio are due to address parliament on Wednesday to give more information on what happened in a case that has soured relations between Rome and the ICC.

Asked about the Italian investigation, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said the court did not comment on national judicial proceedings.

Meloni said Njeem had visited three European countries over a 12-day period before reaching Italy, and it was only at that point that the ICC asked for his arrest.

Njeem is a brigadier general in Libya's Judicial Police. Meloni's government depends heavily on Libyan security forces to prevent would-be migrants from leaving the North African nation and heading to southern Italy.

Meloni said the case against her 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.

The prime minister's supporters swiftly accused the Italian judiciary, which is locked in battle with the government over plans for a sweeping reform of the legal system, of being politically motivated.

"We are faced with yet another example of politicised justice that aims to attack the Meloni government," said Lucio Malan, head of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party in the Senate.

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