GNU rejects surrendering Osama Njeem to the ICC
In a statement issued Sunday, the Ministry of Justice under the GUN said it had lifted the procedural restriction on Officer Osama Njeem; a serving member of the Judicial Police affiliated with the ministry. The move, the ministry said, was made in accordance with national law and jurisdictional rules, based on a request from the Attorney General.
The ministry published the request for lifting the restriction on its Facebook page, stamped by the Attorney General's Office, confirming that Njeem had appeared for questioning on April 24.
The Ministry of Justice said that 'the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has not, to date, submitted any evidence to Libya's Public Prosecution related to the alleged charges, and the ministry has not received any formal correspondence.'
The ministry further pointed out that 'Libya has neither signed nor ratified the Rome Statute (the treaty establishing the ICC). Therefore, no Libyan citizen will be handed over outside the jurisdiction of Libyan territory, and the national judiciary is fully competent to consider such cases.'
On January 18, Osama Njeem was detained by authorities in the Italian city of Turin under an ICC arrest warrant. However, he was released two days later and returned to Libya due to a procedural flaw in the international request — a move that drew strong domestic and international criticism. On May 18, the ICC published the arrest warrant issued by its Prosecutor against Njeem, listing 12 charges, including murder and rape.
Njeem, who was reportedly in charge of prisons in Tripoli where thousands of individuals were detained for extended periods, is suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes at Mitiga Prison starting in February 2015. The charges include premeditated murder, torture, rape, sexual violence, degrading treatment, cruel treatment, unlawful imprisonment, and persecution, according to the arrest warrant.
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