‘I saw him kill people:’ Libya and Italy’s shadowy migrant deals | Refugees

Libya’s Chief of Judicial Police, Osama “Al Masri” Njeem, returned to Libya on an Italian authorities aircraft after his arrest in Italy on January 19 on an Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) warrant.

His launch two days later was for what the Italian authorities stated on Wednesday had been “inaccuracies” within the warrant.

Njeem is accused by the ICC of crimes dedicated in his position overseeing the Tripoli department of the Reform and Rehabilitation Establishment, a community of detention centres run by the government-backed Particular Defence Pressure (SDF).

Amnesty Worldwide identifies Njeem as a “long-term member of Tripoli-based militia the Deterrence Equipment for Combatting Terrorism and Organised Crime (DACTO)”, one among a number of militias the internationally recognised Tripoli authorities depends on, and absorbs, to challenge energy throughout the western elements of Libya, which it nominally controls.

The rights group “has lengthy documented horrific violations dedicated with whole impunity on the Mitiga jail in Tripoli, below the management of DACTO”, and says there may be “no prospect of home accountability in Libya of highly effective commanders of militias”.

Al Jazeera has spoken to 2 individuals who had been held in prisons overseen by Njeem concerning the atrocities they witnessed.

“I noticed him commit battle crimes. I noticed him kill individuals,” David Yambio, president of the NGO Refugees in Libya, stated.

The accusations towards Njeem are quite a few, starting from homicide to torture and folks trafficking.

His launch has been condemned as “outrageous” by rights teams and “hypocritical” by main political figures inside Italy. Shortly after Njeem was returned to Libya, Italian Inside Minister Matteo Piantedosi informed the Italian senate he had been launched, moderately than handed over to prosecutors from the ICC, “in view of the hazard [he] posed [to Italian society]”. A little bit greater than every week later, the justice minister introduced that the discharge had been on a authorized technicality.

Njeem is claimed by the ICC to regulate a number of jail services in Tripoli, together with that at Mitiga, Ain Zara and al-Jadida, “the place 1000’s of individuals had been detained for extended intervals”.

In line with the ICC, Njeem “is suspected of crimes towards humanity and battle crimes, together with homicide, torture, rape and sexual violence, allegedly dedicated in Libya from February 2015 onwards”.

The human value

Yambio, now 27, arrived in southern Libya in December 2018 after an extended journey from his native South Sudan – the place he had been pressured to struggle as a baby soldier – by way of Africa and ultimately to Libya.

After seize, torture and eventual escape, Yambio, together with dozens of different individuals, was making an attempt to flee for Europe in November 2019 when he was captured by the Libyan Coastguard – itself largely funded by the Italian authorities - and bundled right into a detention facility at Triq al-Sika.

Yambio says he was “bought” right into a community of prisons operated by Njeem and the Judicial Police in December 2019, initially held within the sprawling facility at al-Jadida in Tripoli.

Yambio described horrible circumstances at al-Jadida, together with beatings and ill-treatment, including he was corralled right into a prisoner slave military and compelled to work on building websites for the advantage of his captors.

However worst of all was when Njeem was there, he stated, including that everybody at al-Jadida knew who Njeem was.

“Each two days they might line us up in our 1000’s [for a head count] and, when he would go to, al-Masri would stroll down the road, selecting out individuals to beat, both with a metallic tube or with the deal with of his pistol. Typically he would enter the cells the place individuals had been sleeping and beat them with a metallic or plastic pipe.”

‘I noticed him kill individuals’

In March 2020, months into an assault on Tripoli and the western authorities by eastern-based renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, Yambio was transferred to the mixed jail, navy base and airfield at Mitiga, close to Tripoli.

The abuse meted out at Mitiga has been reported on by rights teams, together with Amnesty , which described the “horrific violations dedicated with whole impunity on the Mitiga jail”, reminiscent of “torture and different ill-treatment, illegal killings, enforced disappearances, and different crimes below worldwide legislation”.

“Circumstances had been very, very dangerous,” 33-year-old Lam Magok, additionally from South Sudan, informed Al Jazeera of his time alongside Yambio at al-Jadida and Mitiga.

The 2 had met at al-Jadida, thrown collectively in the identical jail ward and certain collectively, Yambio stated, by their shared sick fortune.

“We’d keep up at night time speaking,” Yambio recalled, “recalling our dwelling and the nation that had forsaken us.”

In March, Yambio was chosen with some others to be transferred to Mitiga to struggle in one among Njeem’s fighter teams.

Magok, not realising that he would ultimately comply with in April, pressed some paper into Yambio’s hand.

On it had been the numbers of an activist and a journalist, with particulars of his authorized asylum standing, and the contact particulars of his uncle with a plea that, ought to he ever get the prospect, Yambio at the least attempt to inform his household that Magok was alive.

“If heaven permits, discover them. Inform them I’m alive,” Yambio recalled him saying. Whereas Magok was spared the combating, circumstances for him at Mitiga had been no much less extreme.

“Each second day, they might name us for a [head] depend,” he stated, the smile in his voice at odds with the brutality he recalled. “They might make us kneel after which beat us… Should you did one thing they didn’t like, they might take you away, lock you in a room and torture you.” Killings weren’t unknown, he added.

“We had been held with Libyans and [foreign] migrants, however it was at all times migrants who had been despatched to scrub up the rooms. They might be informed to place the physique in a bag and carry it to the ambulance. It was dangerous.”

Magok was pressured to work within the navy shops, loading ammunition onto automobiles, whereas Yambio says he was despatched day by day to the close by entrance line the place he was made to struggle alongside different migrants, Libyan teams and Turkish and Syrian forces to repel Haftar’s forces.

“We had been used to hold munitions in addition to fireplace the howitzers. I nonetheless have tinnitus. Circumstances had been actually dangerous. There have been prisoners, Libyans and migrants pressured into holes within the floor,” he stated, describing the underground cells at Mitiga the place the odor of the sick and the dying would catch on him and comply with him by way of the day.

“We watched them being escorted into the interrogation rooms, the place they might be overwhelmed, electroshocked, have their fingers minimize off, or pressured into barrels of water and held below,” he stated of the strategies getting used towards each Libyan and migrant prisoners at Mitiga.

“Al-Masri was a brutal particular person. When individuals knew he was coming, they might panic. I typically puzzled if he was on medication, however he wasn’t. That was simply who he was. He was purely evil.

“I noticed him kill individuals,” Yambio added flatly. “One time, two individuals tried to flee … Mitiga. Al-Masri had us line up as he shot one. I had the blood on my physique. One other time, somebody had given the individuals working the howitzer the mistaken drone coordinates. Al-Masri killed him.

“It was wretched and merciless past description.”

Yambio’s account is supported by different reviews from prisoners, one among whom informed Italian state tv in January that he had witnessed Njeem kill prisoners “to frighten the individuals inside. He kills a couple of individuals inside. Even utilizing his fingers. I noticed this,” he claimed, “greater than as soon as.”

Two younger males, the person stated, had been killed on this method in entrance of him by Njeem.

Al Jazeera contacted each Libya’s Ministry of Justice and its Judicial Police for touch upon the factors raised on this article and the accusations towards Njeem. Neither has responded by the point of publication.

Blowback

Releasing Njeem provoked anger throughout Italy’s political institution. Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi informed senators: “The prime minister stated she desires to hunt traffickers everywhere in the world. Yesterday she had one … and also you launched him and despatched him again to Tripoli on a authorities aircraft.

“Is it simply me who thinks that is loopy or is that this the behaviour of a hypocritical and indecent authorities?”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later revealed she is below judicial investigation over her position in Njeem’s launch.

Vale oggi quello che valeva ieri: non sono ricattabile e non mi faccio intimidire. Avanti a testa alta! pic.twitter.com/Urg0QOis9V

— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) January 28, 2025

“What was true yesterday is true at the moment: I can’t be blackmailed and I can’t be intimidated. Let’s transfer ahead with our heads held excessive!” Giorgia Meloni, Twitter 

Meloni’s workplace has been contacted concerning the factors raised on this article however has not responded by the point of publication.

“It’s outrageous that Italian authorities absolutely disregarded an [ICC] warrant in deciding to free Osama el-Masry,” Bassam Khawaja, deputy Center East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch informed Al Jazeera.

He famous different examples of Italy flouting worldwide norms, reminiscent of its announcement that it could not implement an ICC warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is needed for battle crimes and crimes towards humanity in Gaza.

Njeem is the second Libyan accused of crimes to be let out by Italian authorities inside six months.

In August final 12 months, Khalifa Haftar’s son Saddam – who met with senior Italian diplomats to debate safety, financial cooperation and migration at the least 4 instances final 12 months – was briefly detained by Italian border authorities who questioned him regarding an arrest warrant issued by Spain for allegations of weapons smuggling.

Each Haftars have confronted allegations from media outlets and rights groups, together with Amnesty, of involvement within the kidnapping, torture, trafficking and extortion of migrants.

An August 2023 investigation by Al Jazeera and companions confirmed the Tariq Ben Zeyad Brigade, led by Saddam Haftar since its emergence in 2016, was tied to “a listing of horrors together with illegal killings, torture, enforced disappearance, rape and compelled displacement”.

Alongside the brigade’s pullbacks and subsequent exploitation of individuals in search of shelter in Europe, Al Jazeera documented a sequence of high-level conferences between the Haftar regime in japanese Libya and European leaders, together with Italy, aimed toward limiting the variety of individuals making an attempt to succeed in security.

Italy’s migration obsession

“Migration has been an enormous concern in Italy for years,” Hamza Meddeb of the Carnegie Center East Middle, who has written extensively on the topic, informed Al Jazeera.

“Meloni has performed this card very well. She’s used her place to offer legitimacy to the militias and governments in Libya, in addition to that of Tunisia’s [President] Kais Saied – who would in any other case be fully shunned by the West – with out asking them for change or reform,” he stated. Libya’s neighbour can be a key departure level for irregular migration.

Within the 2022 election - towards a background of some 105,000 irregular arrivals that 12 months – Meloni and her hard-right Brothers of Italy occasion campaigned on undocumented migration, promising to ship a “answer” that numerous politicians earlier than them had not.

Meloni used her inaugural speech to announce the revival of the Mattei Plan, first steered by the chief of the nationwide electrical energy firm within the Fifties.

Mattei would see Italy partnering with African states on vitality improvement in return for them serving to curb migration.

Meloni shouldn’t be the primary Italian chief accused of ignoring credible allegations of abuse by companion organisations in her dedication to cease asylum seekers from reaching Italy in any respect prices.

Italy contributes undisclosed sums to help Libya’s Coast Guard, which is routinely accused of human rights abuses, in addition to the services the place irregular migrants are held.

“There isn’t any approach that the Italian authorities can say it doesn’t know concerning the homicide, abuse and terrorism it’s supporting,” Yambio stated.

“I say terrorism intentionally as a result of that’s what it’s. It’s terror towards migrants.”

Yambio escaped Mitiga in April 2020, making his approach to Italy the place he was granted asylum. Magok escaped to Italy in December of the identical 12 months.

Each now work to marketing campaign for the rights of refugees and irregular migrants.