A Libyan general wanted for alleged war crimes and violence against inmates at a prison near Tripoli has been arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin.
Osama Najim, also known as Almasri, was detained on Sunday on an international arrest warrant after a tipoff from Interpol, a source at the prosecutors office for the Piedmont region confirmed.
The Italian justice ministry on Tuesday declined to comment.
Najim was reportedly chief of Libya’s judicial police and director of Mitiga prison, a facility close to Tripoli condemned by human rights’ groups for the arbitrary detention, torture and abuse of political dissidents and migrants and refugees. It is not clear whether he is still in either role.
The arrest warrant was issued by the international criminal court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as alleged rape and murder.
The general was in Turin for a football match on Saturday between Juventus and AC Milan accompanied by other Libyans, according to the Italian press. They reported he was arrested at a hotel in the city.
The NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans wrote on X that the arrest “came after years of complaints and testimonies from victims, sent to the international criminal court, which conducted a difficult investigation”.
Nello Scavo, a journalist on the Italian newspaper Avvenire, wrote about the general in his book, Le Mani sulla Guardia Costiera, in which he described him as being “among the figures capable of blackmailing Italy and Europe with boats”. In the book, Scavo alleged that Najim illegally transferred migrants “from both unofficial and official places of detention in Tripoli to the Mitiga facility, for the primary purpose of using them for forced labour as a form of slavery”.
The Libyan judicial police reportedly condemned what they described as Najim’s “arbitrary detention”, calling his arrest an “outrageous incident” on Facebook.
The arrest puts the spotlight on a controversial pact between Italy and Libya, signed in 2017 and renewed every three years. The deal, approved by the European Council, involves Italy funding and equipping the Libyan coastguard to prevent boats of refugees leaving the north African country. Humanitarian groups have criticised it for pushing people back to detention camps where they face torture and other abuses.
In November 2022, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a German NGO, filed a criminal complaint at the ICC against several high-profile European politicians for allegedly conspiring with Libya’s coastguard to illegally push back people trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of refuge in Europe.
Scavo told the Guardian that many testimonies from migrants and refugees presented to the ICC had provided evidence for the investigation into Najim. “It would be a turning point if a trial could be opened before the ICC, but I fear that many countries are afraid of what he might say, because these are representatives of authorities who have relations with Italy, with Malta and in general with Europe,” he said.
The hardline immigration policies of Georgia Meloni’s government, including a similar deal with Tunisia, are at least partly credited for the sharp decrease in refugees crossing from north Africa in 2024.
