Libya
The International Criminal Court (ICC), human rights groups, and victims of Libyan warlord, Osama Njeem, have expressed outrage at his release by the Italian authorities.
Njeem, also known as al-Masri, was arrested in Turin on Sunday on a warrant issued by the ICC, before being freed by a Rome court on Tuesday on a technicality.
He was later flown home to Libya on board an Italian secret service plane because of what the Rome appeals court said was a procedural error in his arrest..
Al-Masri is wanted by the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape, and sexual violence, allegedly committed in Libya from 2015 onwards.
David Yambio, a 27-year-old from South Sudan, said he was abused by al-Masri, while he was detained at the Mitiga prison in 2019 to 2020.
He described Njeem’s release as a "deep betrayal".
Yambio had tried to reach Europe but was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard vessel in the Mediterranean Sea brought back to Libya.
He was held at the Al-Jadida detention centre, as well as the Mitiga prison, before escaping in 2022 and travelling on a smuggler’s boat to Italy, where he was granted asylum.
“I am a direct victim. I lived a sort of a fleeting feeling of justice when I heard the news that he was arrested in Turin. I had the feeling that justice finally could come,” said Yambio who is now an activist of the Refugees in Libya network.
“You have to imagine the waiting since 2019, those who waited long before me. The Libyans who are victims of his criminal network, his war crimes, have been wanting this day to come. But when it came, it was immediately extinguished.”
Al-Masri heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centres run by the government-backed Special Defence Force.
“It's a whole chain of networks which exploit, which uses the workforce of migrants. They are using them in different sections. So the influx of refugees from Sudan now has exacerbated the situation,” said Yambio.
“Many are victims of rape. Many are victims of torture. Many are victims of enslavement. Many are victims of incarceration, arbitrary detention, which is a deliberate act supported by the Italian government.”
Yambio criticised Italy and other European governments, saying he believed they are not really trying to shut down the human trafficking hubs.
The Italian government is under pressure from opposition parties, human rights activists and the ICC, to clarify why the court refused to approve al-Masri’s arrest.
The ICC on Wednesday reminded Italy that it is obliged to “cooperate fully” with the court’s prosecutions and said it was still awaiting information about what exactly Rome had done.
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