Italy had no choice but to free a Libyan officer wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) because of mistakes and inaccuracies in the court’s arrest warrant, the country’s justice minister said.

The allegation from Minister Carlo Nordio on Tuesday comes after authorities in Italy detained and then released Osama Elmasry Njeem on an ICC warrant that said he was suspected of the murder, torture, and rape of detainees in Libya.

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Njeem is the head of the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centres. He was flown home to Tripoli two days after being taken into custody in Turin in January.

The ICC, which has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the country’s 2011 civil war, demanded an explanation from Italy over why Njeem was freed, saying Rome let him go without any consultation.

His release also triggered a legal investigation into Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, two of her ministers, and a cabinet undersecretary.

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‘Huge, hasty mess’

On Wednesday, Nordio, one of Meloni’s ministers under investigation, told parliament the ICC’s warrant was “marked by inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions”.

Nordio said there was “uncertainty” in the warrant over when Njeem was suspected of committing the alleged crimes, saying the document stated alleged abuses were committed from 2015 to 2024, but later referred to crimes committed from 2011 onwards.

The ICC later corrected the mistake when it publicly unsealed the warrant.

“It is my intention … to ask the ICC for justification of the inconsistencies,” Nordio said, adding the international court realised it made “a huge, hasty mess”.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who also addressed parliament, said Njeem had been subsequently expelled from Italy following his release because he was viewed as dangerous.

He denied claims by opposition leaders that Njeem had worked with Italy to help control migrant flows from Libya, or Rome faced external pressure to free him.

Since 2017, Italy has had an agreement with the United Nations-backed Libyan Government of National Unity in Tripoli. Under the deal, Rome provides training and funding to the Libyan coast guard to deter the departures of migrants or return those already at sea back to Libya.

Warring parties in Libya signed a ceasefire agreement in March 2020, but a political standoff has led to the formation of two separate governments in the North African country. The opposing body, the Government of National Stability, is based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

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“I deny in the most categorical manner that … the government received any act or communication that could even remotely be considered a form of undue pressure,” Piantedosi said.

Credibility ‘tarnished’

Italy’s opposition leaders swiftly rejected the ministers’ explanations and demanded that Meloni come in person to explain her government’s decision.

“The international credibility of Italy has been tarnished by your decision to release a Libyan torturer,” said Elly Schlein, head of the main opposition group, the Democratic Party.

“What kind of country do we want to be, colleagues? On the side of the tortured or on the side of the torturers?” Schlein asked in parliament.

Last week, Meloni revealed that Rome’s chief prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, was investigating her, Nordio, Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano, over allegations they aided and abetted a crime and misused public funds.

All four have denied the allegation and accused Lo Voi of politicising the case.

Meloni and the two ministers have also been named in a complaint filed on Monday in Rome by a South Sudanese migrant who says he was tortured by Njeem in the Mitiga detention centre, east of Tripoli.