Latest news with #Njeem
Libya Herald
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Libya Herald
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan Libya report to UN Security Council
During his live 25-minute report by video link on Libya to the UN Security Council, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan: Demanded that Libya's Attorney General, Siddig Al-Sour, arrest Osama Elmasry Njeem of Libya's Judicial Police in charge of Mitiga Prison, and hand him over to the International Criminal Court on charges of committing crimes against humanity and torturing prisoners in Mitiga prison. Revealed that the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) is cooperating with the ICC, is continuing to investigate Njeem, and has frozen funds belonging to Njeem in Britain worth £12 million. Revealed that Tripoli based Libyan Prime Minister, Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba, has officially dissolved the Special Deterrence Force (SDF / RADA) led by Abdelraouf Kara and that he has removed Ngeem from his post as head of the Judicial Police. Reported that the monitored movement of Militia leaders all over Libya has indicated that they are now concerned by ICC work in attempting to arrest them. Reported that the torture videos of missing MP Dersi are authentic. Said the act by Tripoli PM Aldabaiba to dissolve militias right now in these circumstances is historic. Said it is an opportunity to put a stop to these types of crimes. Said it is essential that states cooperate to remove the sense of impunity that militias, security personnel etc feel they enjoy in Libya. Reported that the ICC will complete the Tarhuna crimes and Mitiga prison crimes investigative reports by the end 2025 and Q1 of 2026. Announced that Libya has formally accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes committed inside Libya from 2011 until the end of 2027. The Osama Njeem saga with Italy It will be recalled that the ICC had announced the issuance of a warrant of arrest against Osama Elmasry Njeem on 18 January 2025 (under seal, made public on 12 February 2025) for several war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Tripoli's Mitiga Prison. These crimes were allegedly committed from February 2015 to October 2024, and included murder, torture, rape and sexual violence against Libyan nationals and migrants. The ICC said this represents the first arrest warrant publicly issued by its Pre-Trial Chamber stemming from the Office's investigations into alleged crimes in Mitiga prison. On the day the arrest warrant was issued, 18 January 2025, the ICC transmitted the warrant of arrest to Italy and requested his arrest under article 92 of the Rome Statute. On 19 January 2025, Osama Elmasry Njeem was arrested by police in Italy. On 21 January 2025, Italy released the suspect from custody and flew him back to Libya. . ICC issues arrest warrant against Osama Njeem for crimes against humanity, war crimes – Njeem briefly arrested in Italy, freed and transported to Tripoli – without ICC's approval UNSMIL calls for independent investigation into HoR member Dersi's disappearance and circulating torture video
Al Jazeera
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
‘I saw him kill people:' Libya and Italy's shadowy migrant deals
Libya's Chief of Judicial Police, Osama 'Al Masri' Njeem, returned to Libya on an Italian government plane after his arrest in Italy on January 19 on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant. His release two days later was for what the Italian government said on Wednesday were 'inaccuracies' in the warrant. Njeem is accused by the ICC of crimes committed in his role overseeing the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a network of detention centres run by the government-backed Special Defence Force (SDF). Amnesty International identifies Njeem as a 'long-term member of Tripoli-based militia the Deterrence Apparatus for Combatting Terrorism and Organised Crime (DACTO)', one of several militias the internationally recognised Tripoli government relies on, and absorbs, to project power across the western parts of Libya, which it nominally controls. The rights group 'has long documented horrific violations committed with total impunity at the Mitiga prison in Tripoli, under the control of DACTO', and says there is 'no prospect of domestic accountability in Libya of powerful commanders of militias'. Al Jazeera has spoken to two people who were held in prisons overseen by Njeem about the atrocities they witnessed. 'I saw him commit war crimes. I saw him kill people,' David Yambio, president of the NGO Refugees in Libya, said. The accusations against Njeem are numerous, ranging from murder to torture and people trafficking. His release has been condemned as 'outrageous' by rights groups and 'hypocritical' by leading political figures within Italy. Shortly after Njeem was returned to Libya, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told the Italian senate he had been released, rather than handed over to prosecutors from the ICC, 'in view of the danger [he] posed [to Italian society]'. A little more than a week later, the justice minister announced that the release had been on a legal technicality. Njeem is said by the ICC to control several prison facilities in Tripoli, including that at Mitiga, Ain Zara and al-Jadida, 'where thousands of persons were detained for prolonged periods'. According to the ICC, Njeem 'is suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, allegedly committed in Libya from February 2015 onwards'. The human cost Yambio, now 27, arrived in southern Libya in December 2018 after a long journey from his native South Sudan – where he had been forced to fight as a child soldier – through Africa and eventually to Libya. After capture, torture and eventual escape, Yambio, along with dozens of other people, was trying to flee for Europe in November 2019 when he was captured by the Libyan Coastguard – itself largely funded by the Italian government - and bundled into a detention facility at Triq al-Sika. Yambio says he was 'sold' into a network of prisons operated by Njeem and the Judicial Police in December 2019, initially held in the sprawling facility at al-Jadida in Tripoli. Yambio described terrible conditions at al-Jadida, including beatings and ill-treatment, adding he was corralled into a prisoner slave army and forced to work on construction sites for the benefit of his captors. But worst of all was when Njeem was there, he said, adding that everyone at al-Jadida knew who Njeem was. 'Every two days they would line us up in our thousands [for a head count] and, when he would visit, al-Masri would walk down the line, picking out people to beat, either with a metal tube or with the handle of his pistol. Sometimes he would enter the cells where people were sleeping and beat them with a metal or plastic pipe.' 'I saw him kill people' In March 2020, months into an assault on Tripoli and the western government by eastern-based renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, Yambio was transferred to the combined prison, military base and airfield at Mitiga, near Tripoli. The abuse meted out at Mitiga has been reported on by rights groups, including Amnesty , which described the 'horrific violations committed with total impunity at the Mitiga prison', such as 'torture and other ill-treatment, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, and other crimes under international law'. 'Conditions were very, very bad,' 33-year-old Lam Magok, also from South Sudan, told Al Jazeera of his time alongside Yambio at al-Jadida and Mitiga. The two had met at al-Jadida, thrown together in the same prison ward and bound together, Yambio said, by their shared ill fortune. 'We would stay up at night talking,' Yambio recalled, 'recalling our home and the country that had forsaken us.' In March, Yambio was selected with some others to be transferred to Mitiga to fight in one of Njeem's fighter groups. Magok, not realising that he would eventually follow in April, pressed some paper into Yambio's hand. On it were the numbers of an activist and a journalist, with details of his legal asylum status, and the contact details of his uncle with a plea that, should he ever get the chance, Yambio at least try and tell his family that Magok was alive. 'If heaven permits, find them. Tell them I'm alive,' Yambio recalled him saying. While Magok was spared the fighting, conditions for him at Mitiga were no less severe. 'Every second day, they would call us for a [head] count,' he said, the smile in his voice at odds with the brutality he recalled. 'They would make us kneel and then beat us… If you did something they didn't like, they would take you away, lock you in a room and torture you.' Killings were not unknown, he added. 'We were held with Libyans and [foreign] migrants, but it was always migrants who were sent to clean up the rooms. They would be told to put the body in a bag and carry it to the ambulance. It was bad.' Magok was forced to work in the military stores, loading ammunition onto vehicles, while Yambio says he was sent daily to the nearby front line where he was made to fight alongside other migrants, Libyan groups and Turkish and Syrian forces to repel Haftar's forces. 'We were used to carry munitions as well as fire the howitzers. I still have tinnitus. Conditions were really bad. There were prisoners, Libyans and migrants forced into holes in the ground,' he said, describing the underground cells at Mitiga where the smell of the sick and the dying would catch on him and follow him through the day. 'We watched them being escorted into the interrogation rooms, where they would be beaten, electroshocked, have their fingers cut off, or forced into barrels of water and held under,' he said of the methods being used against both Libyan and migrant prisoners at Mitiga. 'Al-Masri was a brutal person. When people knew he was coming, they would panic. I sometimes wondered if he was on drugs, but he wasn't. That was just who he was. He was purely evil. 'I saw him kill people,' Yambio added flatly. 'One time, two people tried to escape … Mitiga. Al-Masri had us line up as he shot one. I had the blood on my body. Another time, someone had given the people working the howitzer the wrong drone coordinates. Al-Masri killed him. 'It was wretched and cruel beyond description.' Yambio's account is supported by other reports from prisoners, one of whom told Italian state television in January that he had witnessed Njeem kill prisoners 'to frighten the people inside. He kills a few people inside. Even using his hands. I saw this,' he claimed, 'more than once.' Two young men, the man said, were killed in this manner in front of him by Njeem. Al Jazeera contacted both Libya's Ministry of Justice and its Judicial Police for comment on the points raised in this article and the accusations against Njeem. Neither has responded by the time of publication. Blowback Releasing Njeem provoked anger across Italy's political establishment. Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told senators: 'The prime minister said she wants to hunt traffickers all over the world. Yesterday she had one … and you released him and sent him back to Tripoli on a government plane. 'Is it just me who thinks this is crazy or is this the behaviour of a hypocritical and indecent government?' Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later revealed she is under judicial investigation over her role in Njeem's release. 'What was true yesterday is true today: I cannot be blackmailed and I will not be intimidated. Let's move forward with our heads held high!' Giorgia Meloni, Twitter Meloni's office has been contacted about the points raised in this article but has not responded by the time of publication. 'It is outrageous that Italian authorities fully disregarded an [ICC] warrant in deciding to free Osama el-Masry,' Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch told Al Jazeera. He noted other examples of Italy flouting international norms, such as its announcement that it would not enforce an ICC warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Njeem is the second Libyan accused of crimes to be set free by Italian authorities within six months. In August last year, Khalifa Haftar's son Saddam – who met with senior Italian diplomats to discuss security, economic cooperation and migration at least four times last year – was briefly detained by Italian border authorities who questioned him concerning an arrest warrant issued by Spain for allegations of weapons smuggling. Both Haftars have faced allegations from media outlets and rights groups, including Amnesty, of involvement in the kidnapping, torture, trafficking and extortion of migrants. An August 2023 investigation by Al Jazeera and partners showed the Tariq Ben Zeyad Brigade, led by Saddam Haftar since its emergence in 2016, was tied to 'a catalogue of horrors including unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearance, rape and forced displacement'. Alongside the brigade's pullbacks and subsequent exploitation of people seeking shelter in Europe, Al Jazeera documented a series of high-level meetings between the Haftar regime in eastern Libya and European leaders, including Italy, aimed at limiting the number of people trying to reach safety. Italy's migration obsession 'Migration has been a big issue in Italy for years,' Hamza Meddeb of the Carnegie Middle East Center, who has written extensively on the subject, told Al Jazeera. 'Meloni has played this card really well. She's used her position to give legitimacy to the militias and governments in Libya, as well as that of Tunisia's [President] Kais Saied – who would otherwise be completely shunned by the West – without asking them for change or reform,' he said. Libya's neighbour is also a key departure point for irregular migration. In the 2022 election - against a background of some 105,000 irregular arrivals that year – Meloni and her hard-right Brothers of Italy party campaigned on undocumented migration, promising to deliver a 'solution' that countless politicians before them had not. Meloni used her inaugural speech to announce the revival of the Mattei Plan, first suggested by the leader of the national electricity company in the 1950s. Mattei would see Italy partnering with African states on energy development in return for them helping curb migration. Meloni is not the first Italian leader accused of ignoring credible allegations of abuse by partner organisations in her determination to stop asylum seekers from reaching Italy at all costs. Italy contributes undisclosed sums to support Libya's Coast Guard, which is routinely accused of human rights abuses, as well as the facilities where irregular migrants are held. 'There is no way that the Italian government can say it does not know about the murder, abuse and terrorism it is supporting,' Yambio said. 'I say terrorism deliberately because that's what it is. It's terror against migrants.' Yambio escaped Mitiga in April 2020, making his way to Italy where he was granted asylum. Magok escaped to Italy in December of the same year. Both now work to campaign for the rights of refugees and irregular migrants.
Reuters
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Italy-based refugee advocate says he was targeted using spyware
Feb 11 (Reuters) - A refugee advocate caught up in an Italian political scandal over the recent release of an alleged war criminal was targeted using sophisticated spyware, according to an alert sent to him by iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab. David Yambio, the head of the Refugees in Libya group, received the alert on November 13, according to a message he shared with Reuters. The message warned him that his iPhone was targeted in a "mercenary spyware attack" and that, "This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do." Yambio told Reuters the surveillance was inexcusable. "I know I'm not a criminal. I have never been a criminal. Why should I be spied on?" he said. Apple has periodically issued alerts to users who it believes have been targeted using mercenary spyware, a practice that dates back to 2021, when it sued the Israeli hacking company NSO Group to curb its spying on Apple customers. The circumstances of the alert received by Yambio late last year are not clear. Apple did not immediately return a message seeking comment and Yambio said he was reserving judgment on who might be responsible for the hacking pending a forensic examination of his device. Yambio's disclosure comes amid an escalating scandal in Italy over the alleged use of Paragon spyware to intercept the communications of domestic opponents of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Anonymously sourced reports have claimed the spyware company Paragon, which has marketed itself as a more responsible alternative to NSO, cut its ties to the Italian government following allegations the government had used Paragon's technology to hack its critics. Paragon has not returned repeated messages seeking comment on the revelations. The Italian government did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Yambio's case, although officials have more broadly denied any involvement in the hacking. Yambio was one of the alleged victims of Libyan police officer Osama Elmasry Njeem, who was released by Italian authorities last month despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court over a string of human rights abuses, including murder, torture and rape. He was arrested in Italy on January 19 on an ICC warrant but was freed two days later and flown back to Libya on a government plane, officially because of a procedural fault with his arrest. Opposition politicians and human rights groups have accused Meloni's government of freeing Njeem because it relies on Libyan security forces to check the flow of African migrants crossing the Mediterranean and did not want to antagonize them by arresting such a high-profile figure. The release triggered a legal investigation into Meloni, two of her ministers, and a cabinet undersecretary. Yambio was among those who publicly deplored Njeem's release, calling it a "huge betrayal" at a news conference two weeks ago held in Italy's parliament. Njeem has not publicly commented on the charges against him.
Al Jazeera
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Italy officials say accused Libyan freed over ICC warrant ‘inaccuracies'
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. 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. '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. '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.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Italy says it freed Libyan officer because of errors in ICC warrant
By Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) - Italy's justice minister said on Wednesday Rome had no choice but to free a Libyan military officer wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court because of what he described as mistakes and inaccuracies in the court's arrest warrant. Osama Elmasry Njeem was released and flown home to Tripoli two days after being detained last month in northern Italy on the back of the ICC warrant which said he was suspected of the murder, torture and rape of detainees in Libya. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. His release sparked outrage among Italian opposition parties and triggered a legal investigation into Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, two of her ministers and a cabinet undersecretary. One of those under investigation, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, told parliament the warrant had been "marked by inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions". Representatives of the court and its prosecutor did not immediately respond to requests for a reaction to the comments. Nordio said there was "uncertainty" in the warrant over when Njeem was suspected of committing the alleged crimes, saying the document suggested they had started in February 2011 and later referred to February 2015. "It is my intention ... to ask the ICC for justification of the inconsistencies," Nordio said, adding that the Court had realised it had made "a huge, hasty mess" and corrected the document a few days after it was first issued. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who also addressed the house, reiterated that a decision to expel Njeem following his release was because he was viewed as dangerous. He denied suggestions from the opposition that Njeem had worked with Italy to help control migrant flows from Libya, or that Rome had faced external pressure to free him. The ICC, which has been investigating allegations of serious crimes committed in Libya since the country's 2011 civil war, has demanded an explanation over why Njeem was freed, saying Rome let him go without any consultation. Opposition leaders rejected the explanations provided by the justice and interior ministers 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 main opposition group the Democratic Party. Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Le Voi, said last week that Meloni, Nordio, Piantedosi and the cabinet undersecretary for intelligence matters, Alfredo Mantovano, were under investigation over allegations they aided and abetted a crime and misused public funds. All four have denied the suggestion and accused Le Voi of politicising the case. Being placed under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt, nor mean that formal charges will necessarily follow.
