Libyan warlord convicted over abuses at detention center, officials say
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CAIRO (AP) — A Libyan warlord has been convicted of human rights violations reportedly committed at a detention facility in the country’s west, authorities said, over a year after Italy deported him despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, who led the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for “violating the rights of inmates” who reported “torture, cruelty and degrading treatment,” according to a statement Sunday by the attorney general’s office.
The facility is part of a network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force, or SDF. It functions as a military police unit tasked with combating crimes such as kidnappings, murders and illegal migration, but it has been implicated in atrocities during Libya’s civil war.
The institution didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In January 2025, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for al-Masri on suspicion of “crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, torture, rape and sexual violence, allegedly committed in Libya from February 2015 onwards.”
Al-Masri was arrested in Turin on the ICC warrant the day after he arrived in Italy from Germany to watch a soccer match.
However, Italy released him on a technicality, after which he was expelled to Libya, which outraged human rights groups and prompted the ICC to open an inquiry into why Italy released him instead of sending him to The Hague.
Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio at the time defended the decision, claiming the ICC had issued a contradictory and flawed arrest warrant.
The attorney general’s office on Sunday said the Tripoli Criminal Court also ordered that al-Masri be deprived of his legal capacity and civil rights throughout his sentence and for one year after completing it.
Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the following years, the oil-rich country has been ruled by rival governments in the east and west, each backed by an array of armed groups and foreign governments.
Currently, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah heads the internationally recognized government in Tripoli in the west while Prime Minister Ossama Hammad heads the administration in the east, where the military commander Khalifa Hifter, who leads the Libyan National Army, also holds sway.
The North African country is also a major transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East escaping war and economic pressures by taking risky sea voyages to Europe.