How Italy Allied With Terrorists: Everything That Won't Add Up About the Almasri Case

The government is defending itself on the Almasri affair. It has given up on claiming that the Libyan criminal's escape is the fault of the Rome Court of Appeals and some setbacks at the Ministry of Justice. Now it admits that the decision was made knowingly by ministers and the prime minister. But it maintains: we did it because we were in a "state of necessity ." What? They feared retaliation from the Libyans.

Let's try to understand clearly. The criminal Almasri —against whom the Hague tribunal had issued an arrest warrant for numerous murders and rapes, and Italy was required to execute this arrest warrant—was released by government decision and flown to Tripoli by state plane and handed over to the Libyan government. Palazzo Chigi now says: it was a release to avoid retaliation. If Almasri was handed over to the Libyan government, it means there was fear of retaliation from the Libyan government. Retaliation against whom? Against Italian citizens. Very well, so the Italian government considers the Libyan government a government of terrorists and a threat to Italians. There has always been a debate about whether or not it is right to negotiate with terrorists. Let's suspend the discussion and say for now that it is right. And so the Italian government released the Libyan torturer from prison and accompanied him to Libya as the price of a legitimate negotiation with terrorists, and therefore for a higher interest – let's say for reasons of state – and therefore cannot be prosecuted.

Very good. But it's one thing to negotiate with terrorists, and another to ally with them. And the Italian government has allied itself with Libya. It finances it, supports it. It has tasked it with preventing too many refugees from sailing towards Italy. It signed a protocol that gave rise to the concentration camps governed by Almasri. It has forced our NGOs to obey the Libyan militias at sea, and even punishes NGOs that disobey the terrorist squads in Tripoli. To use Salvini's language: it has mandated this criminal gang to defend our borders. Doesn't that seem enormous? If that's the case, we must draw two conclusions.

The first is that two ministers of the Republic have repeatedly lied to Parliament. When someone lies to Parliament, usually, in civilized countries, they might not be charged, but they are certainly forced to resign or, where the law allows, removed. What are Piantedosi and Nordio , who are clearly responsible for this crime, doing in their place? The second conclusion is the most serious. For at least six months, that is, since they decided to barter Almasri's release with the Libyan government, the government knew that the Libyan government was a terrorist government. Why didn't they immediately cancel the memorandum of understanding? Now that it's out in the open, will they cancel it?

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Piero Sansonetti