Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told the
Lower House on Wednesday that the International Criminal Court
on January 18 issued an international arrest warrant against
Libyan general Osama Almasri but the information about the
warrant was delivered to Italian authorities by an Interpol
official the following day informally, without including an
extradition request.
Nordio was reporting to the House on the release of the Libyan
police chief Almasri, the director of Tripoli's notorious Mitiga
detention centre who is wanted by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes,
including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, allegedly
committed in Libya from February 2015 onwards, who was flown
back to Libya on a secret services flight two days after his
January 19 arrest due to a controversial technical issue with
his case.
"On January 18, the ICC issued an international arrest warrant
against Almasri for a series of crimes.
"The arrest warrant was delivered on Sunday, January 19 at 9:30
am through an informal communication and the arrest delivered
via email by an Interpol official at 12:37, also on Sunday: an
absolutely informal communication, without significant data and
without the measure in question and the reasons behind it.
The email, he added, "did not even include the extradition
request".
Nordio also said he was alerted about Almasri's arrest after he
had already been detained by police in Turin early on Sunday,
January 19.
"On January 20, the prosecutor of Rome's appeals court delivered
the complex papers" on Almasri's arrest to "the ministry of
justice at 11:40.
"At 13:57 our ambassador to The Hague", where the International
Criminal Court is based, "delivered to the ministry the request
for the provisional arrest.
"The communication from the central police department to the
ministry occurred when the arrest had already been carried out",
said Nordio.
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