By: Elihu Weiss
Impunity Watch News Staff Writer
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – On January 26, 2026, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally referred Italy’s non-compliance to the Assembly of States Parties (ASP). The referral stems from Italy’s failure to arrest and surrender Osama Elmasry Njeem, a senior Libyan official wanted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Njeem served as chief of Libya’s judicial police and reportedly ran the Mitiga detention facility near Tripoli. The ICC issued a sealed arrest warrant against him on January 18, 2025, alleging crimes including murder, torture, rape, sexual violence, enslavement, and persecution committed against detainees held at Mitiga from at least February 2015 onward. Many of the victims were migrants and refugees.
Italian anti-terrorism police arrested Njeem at a hotel in Turin on January 19, 2025. Two days later, he was released. Italian authorities cited procedural grounds, stating that the Rome Court of Appeal had not validated the arrest because it was awaiting approval from the Minister of Justice. Njeem was then flown back to Tripoli aboard an Italian government aircraft. The ICC was not notified before his release. The Italian interior minister also ordered Njeem’s expulsion on national security grounds, a justification the ICC later found unsupported.
On October 17, 2025, Pre-Trial Chamber I found that Italy had failed to comply with its obligations under the Rome Statute by not executing the warrant and by not consulting with the Court. The Chamber noted that Njeem was returned to Libya as a free man, not handed over under any formal process. On January 26, 2026, the Chamber referred the matter to the ASP. Italy was invited to appear before the ASP Bureau on April 1, 2026, to explain how it intends to cooperate going forward.
Italy is a founding member of the ICC. Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called the episode “a humiliation,” and opposition leaders demanded accountability. Italy’s refusal to carry out an arrest warrant for a suspect accused of crimes against detained migrants and refugees, some of the world’s most vulnerable people, undermines the Court at a moment when it already faces U.S. sanctions and repeated failures by member states to execute warrants. For victims of the abuses at Mitiga, the referral offers little immediate relief. The suspect is free, and the Court’s only remaining enforcement tool is political pressure from other states.
For further information, please see:
ECCHR – Italy Thwarts Arrest of Alleged War Criminal – 31 Jan. 2025
UPI – ICC Accuses Italy of Non-Compliance in Libyan General’s Torture Case – 2 Apr. 2026
