Italy had released him from prison, repatriating him to his native Libya, thus avoiding the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant. But today the Tripoli-based court sentenced him to seven years and four months in prison for "violating the rights of detainees." This is the latest chapter in the complex legal case of Osama Najeem Almasri, the former commander of Mitiga prison, where he was accused—according to judges in The Hague—of war crimes and crimes against humanity .
According to reports from local sources, the case concludes investigations launched by the Libyan Attorney General's Office following reports of violence and mistreatment of detainees . In recent months, the Attorney General's Office announced Almasri's pre-trial detention as part of an investigation into the torture of ten inmates and the death of one detainee, which investigators believe was the result of mistreatment. The sentence—which also included the loss of legal capacity and the deprivation of civil rights for the duration of the sentence and for a year thereafter—has implications that extend beyond the Libyan judicial framework.
The man is in fact the recipient of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, which were allegedly committed since 2015 in Mitiga prison .
He became a political and diplomatic issue in Italy in January 2025, when he was arrested in Turin in execution of an ICC warrant, but released two days later after the Rome Court of Appeals refused to validate his arrest . He was immediately repatriated to Libya on an Italian government flight, a decision cited by the government on security grounds and contested by the opposition, human rights organizations, and the International Criminal Court itself , which had requested clarification on the suspect's failure to be handed over to The Hague.
The conviction handed down in Tripoli now opens a new phase. For the Libyan authorities, the verdict can be presented as evidence of the national justice system's capacity to prosecute at least some of the charges . For the ICC and human rights organizations, however, the issue of cooperation with The Hague and the complementarity between national and international justice remains open, especially since the Court's mandate covers a broader range of crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes . The Libyan ruling therefore does not automatically close the ICC case. The Hague Court remains competent to assess whether the national proceedings cover the same facts and meet the standards of authenticity required by the principle of complementarity.
(Unioneonline)
