UN Security Council backs Lebanon peacekeepers after Israeli attacks

ROME: Judges have requested permission from Italy’s parliament to bring proceedings against two government ministers over the release of a Libyan wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), reports said Wednesday.

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio is accused of failing to perform his official duties and also, alongside Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, of aiding and abetting Osama Almasri Najim’s return to Libya.

Najim, head of Libya’s judicial police, was arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin on January 19 on an ICC warrant, only to be released by Rome’s Court of Appeal two days later and immediately flown to Tripoli on an Italian air force plane.

He is accused of charges including murder, rape and torture relating to his management of Tripoli’s Mitiga detention center, and his release sparked a major political row in Italy.

Allegations that Meloni and her ministers acted improperly have been under consideration by a special court that deals with ministerial cases.

Meloni revealed on Monday she had been cleared of any wrongdoing.

But the court has now requested permission from parliament’s Chamber of Deputies to bring a case against her ministers — although this will almost certainly be denied, as Meloni’s coalition government has a majority.

According to Italian news agencies, Nordio is accused of failing to comply with ICC requests over the arrest of Najim, and effectively standing by when he could have intervened to keep the Libyan in prison.

Piantedosi and under-secretary Alfredo Mantovano, who is responsible for the intelligence service, are both also accused of aiding and abetting Najim’s release, and also of complicit embezzlement.

Piantedosi ordered the Libyan’s expulsion from Italy and Mantovano ordered the use of a state plane to send him home, despite, like Nordio, being fully aware of the requests for cooperation from the ICC, according to the court.

Meloni on Monday said the judges had cleared her, making what she called the “absurd” conclusion that she was not informed about the decisions on Najim.

She defended the government’s actions, saying they were entirely focused on “protecting the safety of Italians.”

Nordio has previously said the ICC warrant was badly drafted, while Piantedosi claimed that once Najim had been released from prison he was too dangerous to remain in Italy.

Piantedosi also denied allegations by some opposition politicians that the suspect was sent home to avoid jeopardizing relations with Libya.

ROME: Italy’s government is to give final approval Wednesday to a 13.5-billion-euro ($15.6-billion) project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland.

Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said a ministerial committee will back the state-funded bridge over the Strait of Messina, marking a “page in history” following decades of planning.

The bridge has been designed with two railway lines in the middle and three lanes of traffic on either side, with a suspended span of 3.3 kilometers (2.05 miles) — a world record — stretching between two 400-meter (1,300 feet) high towers.

Due for completion by 2032, the government says the bridge is at the cutting edge of engineering, able to withstand high winds and earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates.

Ministers hope it will bring economic growth and jobs to two impoverished Italian regions — Sicily and Calabria on the mainland — with Salvini promising the project will create tens of thousands of jobs.

Yet it has sparked local protests, over the environmental impact and the cost that critics say could be better spent elsewhere.

Some critics believe it will never materialize, pointing to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy.

The bridge has had several false starts, with the first plans drawn up more than 50 years ago.

Eurolink, a consortium led by Italian group Webuild, won the tender in 2006 only to see it canceled after the eurozone debt crisis. The consortium remains the contractor on the revived project.

This time, Rome has an added incentive to press ahead — by classifying the cost of the bridge as defense spending.

Debt-laden Italy has agreed along with other NATO allies to massively increase its defense expenditure to five percent of GDP, at the demand of US President Donald Trump.

Of this, 1.5 percent can be spent on “defense-related” areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure. Rome is hoping the Messina bridge will qualify, particularly as Sicily hosts a NATO base.