Osama Njeem Almasri was arrested by the Italian police on January 19 in Turin, in execution of an arrest warrant issued shortly before by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In the Turin capital, together with three compatriots, he had just seen a Juventus match. Two days later the commander of the Libyan judicial police was freed – the arrest considered null and void because it occurred without prior consultation with the Ministry of Justice – and repatriated by state plane to Tripoli, where he was welcomed by the jubilation of his men at Mitiga airport.
Almasri was part of the Rada, the Special Deterrence Forces, a militia created to fight Gaddafi’s forces and which in 2012 began building a detention center at the Mitiga base which became the largest prison in western Libya.
The crimes alleged against the man by the ICC would have occurred there. For having released the commander from prison and brought him back to Libya, the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, the ministers Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi were included in the register of suspects.
Last Wednesday the Court of Ministers closed the investigation after the vote on 9 October in the Chamber which denied the requests for authorization to proceed against the three government officials.