Rome's Tribunal of Ministers (Tribunale dei Ministri), a special section of the Italian justice system set up to prosecute alleged crimes committed by ministers in office, so called "ministerial crimes", has sent a request to parliament asking to prosecute Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano over Italy's release at the beginning of this year of a Libyan general wanted for war crimes.

Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano, whose brief puts him in charge of Italy's intelligence services, are accused of aiding and abetting Njeem Osama al Masri's return to Libya. The justice minister is also accused of failing to perform his duties. The case against Premier Giorgia Meloni has been dropped.

With this request, a new phase has opened in the case of Njeem Osama al Masri, who was arrested on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant at a hotel in Turin at dawn on January 19 and was returned to Tripoli on an Italian state flight following his release on a technicality by a Rome appeals court on January 21.

Al Masri, who was the head of Libya's judicial police is accused of torture, rape and murder in relation to his management of a detention center in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

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Parliamentary showdown

The requests to prosecute Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano need to be approved within the next 60 days by the Italian Parliament's Lower House, where Premier Giorgia Meloni's ruling center-right coalition has a big majority. Meloni revealed on Monday that she had been notified that the case against her over al Masri's release had been dropped.

Almasri’s release was ordered after Minister Nordio did not respond to the Rome appeals court's request to back the arrest.

According to court documents, the appeals court on January 21 ordered al Masri's release due to a procedural error.

The arrest was not "preceded by talks with the justice minister, who is in charge of relations with the International Criminal Court," the appeals judges wrote motivating their decision.

The judges said they had informed Nordio's office on January 20, immediately after receiving the case files from Turin's central police department, which had arrested al Masri the previous day.

However, they said they had received no answer from the minister regarding his detention, a silence that led to al Masri's release, judicial sources said.

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Flown back to Libya

The Tribunal of Ministers alleges that al Masri was released because the officials feared there could be reprisals against Italian citizens and interests in Libya if he were handed over to the ICC.

Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano are accused of aiding and abetting al Masri's return to Libya and the failure to hand him over to the ICC.

Piantedosi and Mantovano also face embezzlement charges over their decision to expel al Masri and use a state flight to take him back to Libya following his release.

The justice minister is also accused of failing to perform his duties because he did not promptly respond to the Rome appeals court's request to back the arrest of the suspected torturer, as requested by the ICC, according to investigators. The justice ministry handles all relations with The Hague-based court.

The minister also allegedly failed to respond to multiple requests by the ICC to seize material that could be useful to the investigation against the Libyan general.

Nordio has blamed errors in the ICC warrants, which he described as a "mess;" while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has said Rome was forced to expel the general as he posed a danger to Italy.

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Case against Premier Giorgia Meloni dropped

Meanwhile Premier Giorgia Meloni revealed on Monday that she had been notified that the case against her over al Masri's release had been dropped after the Tribunal of Ministers decided that there was no evidence that she was involved in any wrongdoing.

"The elements acquired during the investigation do not allow to reasonably predict a conviction, regarding the sole position of the President of the Council (Premier) Giorgia Meloni" in relation to the charges of aiding and abetting and embezzlement, state the court papers. The premier was briefed on the case but there is no evidence of her "real participation" in the decisions that led to the alleged crimes being committed, according to the Tribunal of Ministers.

Meloni however expressed anger with the Rome Tribunal of Ministers which sought to prosecute her cabinet members. "Every decision made by this government is agreed upon. It is absurd to request that they go to trial and not me as well," Meloni said on social media. The prime minister also said she will sit "beside" her ministers when parliament votes on the request to prosecute the three government members.

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Lawyer representing alleged al Masri victim will launch complaint

Meanwhile attorney Angela Maria Bitonti, who represents Machogbe Fatim Kane, an Ivorian woman allegedly tortured by al Masri, has announced she will file a complaint to the State Attorney’s Office in Rome against the shelving of the case against the premier. "Giorgia Meloni said she shared the decisions on the al Masri case – said the attorney – and for this reason we will file a complaint to the State Attorney’s Office."

The lawyer continued that before filing this complaint, her team are "waiting for the decision (to be taken by) lawmakers regarding the authorization to prosecute the two ministers and the undersecretary and if the authorization is not given, we will evaluate which actions to take."

Bitonti also announced she will seek to examine court papers after a previous request was denied "as my client was considered an indirect victim" while "we believe she is a direct victim because al Masri’s repatriation and the fact that he wasn’t handed over to the International Criminal Court will not allow the trial" against him to take place. This "will not enable victims of such atrocious crimes to obtain justice," the lawyer added.

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'A confession of responsibility?'

Meanwhile Francesco Romeo, the lawyer representing Lam Magok Biel Ruei, a Sudanese migrant who also claimed that he was tortured by al Masri, said "the words with which Meloni said she agreed with the choices made by her government's ministers on the al Masri case amount to a confession of her responsibility. Prosecutors should reopen the investigation given this new element."

Romeo also noted how the decision to drop the case against Meloni could potentially be revised "if there are [found to be] new elements, as in this instance. If Meloni is convinced she did the right thing, then she and the ministers can serenely stand trial, without hiding behind immunity." The attorney also said he would watch the outcome of the vote in parliament before deciding his next move.

Lam Magok Biel Ruei, an alleged victim and witness of the alleged torture committed by the Libyan general, last February filed a criminal complaint with the Rome prosecutor's office in which he claimed Meloni, Nordio and Piantedosi aided and abetted the suspected war criminal.  The alleged victim filed the complaint claiming the government officials "helped the Libyan torturer evade justice."

The previous month, attorney Luigi Li Gotti also filed a criminal complaint against Meloni, Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano over the January 21 release and flight back to Libya of al Masri.

Meloni subsequently announced she and her cabinet members had received notice of a probe into possible aiding and abetting and embezzlement of public funds from Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, following the first complaint by Li Gotti, a former center-left justice undersecretary from 2006 until 2008 and previously an activist with the now defunct neo-Fascist MSI party.

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Government says it acted in interest of state over al Masri case

The members of the government involved in the release of the Libyan general wanted for war crimes acted in the interests of the state, according to a defense brief the government sent to the Tribunal of Ministers over the case on July 30. The thesis of the defense, led by attorney Giulia Bongiorno, was outlined after viewing the court papers to be examined by the House.

In particular, the defense brief sent to the court last week said that "the existence of a state of necessity, as set out in Article 25 of the 'Responsibility of State for Internationally Wrongful Acts 2001' of the United Nations International Law Commission, legitimizes under domestic law the conduct of all representatives of the Italian government involved in these proceedings."

In their request to prosecute the three cabinet members, the judges however wrote that it "appears plausible that the effective and unexpressed motivation" behind the conduct of Nordio, Piantedosi and Mantovano was connected to the "concerns expressed" by the director of Italy's external intelligence agency AISE Giovanni Caravelli over possible "retaliatory acts against Italian citizens and interests in Libya" if Almasri were handed over to the ICC.

After the Lower House's authorization panel drafts its report by the end of September, the House is set to vote by October on the Tribunal of Ministers' requests to prosecute the cabinet members, with the expected result predicted to be in favor of the government's majority coalition.

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