Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on
Thursday said he was sorry Libyan general Osama Almasri had been
freed due to a formal mistake made by the International Criminal
Court, which issued an international arrest warrant against the
judicial police chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against
humanity, adding however that courts exist because they respect
rules.
"I would like each person who has committed a crime to be judged
and, if found guilty, sentenced and the term to be executed
according to rules and procedures", the minister told the Rai
radio 1 program Un Giorno da Pecora.
Nordio went on to say tha Almasri had been described as a
"torturer" by members of the opposition when he had reported to
the House and Senate on the case of his controversial January 22
release and flight back to Libya on a secret services plane,
"regardless of the faulty (arrest) warrant" issued by the ICC.
"But if we followed such criteria, not even the court of
Nuremberg", the first international war crimes tribunal that
tried leading Nazis, "would make sense: tribunals exist because
they must respect rules".
"The idea that a torturer must be punished as such regardless of
the respect of rules means delegitimizing the very existence of
international tribunals", noted the justice minister.
In his address to Parliament on Wednesday, Nordio attacked
Interpol, claiming it had delivered the warrant against Almasri
informally, without including an extradition request, and said
the ICC warrant was void because it included a number of
mistakes, such as the dates in which some alleged crimes were
committed.
Nordio also told the radio program "everybody in this world is
investigating a bit of everything", adding he had "confidence in
human justice", when asked by the radio hosts about a probe
reportedly opened by the International criminal Court against
the Italian government after a criminal complaint filed by a
refugee who says he was a victim of Almasri.
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