Meloni and the Libyan warlord: how Italy freed an alleged mass murderer in order to secure its borders

In January 2025, a man stepped off an Italian government jet in Tripoli and disappeared back into the shadows of one of the world's most brutal migration control systems.

- Hannah Roberts reports from Rome

Osama Al-Masri Njeem is suspected of war crimes at the brutal Mitiga prison – and his case shines an uneasy light on how Europe has outsourced cruelty. Hannah Roberts reports from Rome

Osama Al-Masri Njeem had spent years running Mitiga prison, a Libyan facility described by the United Nations as a hub of mass detention, torture, rape and forced labour. Days earlier, he had been arrested in Turin under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant charging him with crimes against humanity, including murder, sexual violence and enslavement.

The arrest of Njeem, a senior figure in the powerful Special Deterrence Forces militia (known as Radaa), should have marked a breakthrough for international justice. But instead of handing Njeem over to the ICC, Giorgia Meloni's government chose to release him and fly him home.

His release was not the result of procedural error, as Italy claimed publicly, but - according to documents filed by Italian judges - a pre-planned operation, hatched as senior Italian government officials panicked about retaliation, after warnings that holding Njeem could jeopardise migration cooperation with Libya, investigators say.

Witnesses heard by Rome prosecutors detailed how in the days surrounding Njeem's arrest, senior officials in the interior ministry, the justice ministry and Italy's foreign intelligence agency held "top secret" meetings agreeing the urgency of his removal. Among the concerns was an intelligence warning that detaining a key Libyan commander - believed to have leverage over smuggling routes and detention centres - would imperil Europe's migration containment strategy.

Even more troubling information, shared at the meetings, was that Italian agents had previously collaborated with Njeem's militia on anti-trafficking operations, making the group a partner in Europe's outsourced border regime.