Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's ex chief of staff Giusy Bartolozzi was set to go on trial September 17 on charges of giving prosecutors false information in the case of Njeem Osama Almasri, a Libyan general arrested on an International Criminal Court warrants for war crimes against migrants but released two days later and flown back to a hero's welcome in Tripoli last year, a Rome preliminary investigations judge ruled Tuesday - but a legal gambit by the right-wing government will scotch the trial, political source s said.
Almasri was arrested at a hotel in Turin at dawn on January 19, 2025 but was returned to Tripoli on a State flight following his release on a technicality by a Rome appeals court on January 21 after Justice Minister Nordio failed to respond to a request to back the arrest.
The general is accused of torture, rape and murder in relation to his management of a detention centre in the Libyan capital.
Authorities in Libya arrested him in November after he was sacked as the head of Libya's judicial police in September.
Trial requests for Nordio, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano in the case were rejected by parliament, leaving Bartolozzi as the sole defendant since she did not enjoy parliamentary immunity.
