Refugees in Libya uses strategic litigation before the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the responsibility of European states where their actions or failures contribute to impunity for grave violations committed against refugees and migrants.
The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, examines alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights by states that are parties to the Convention.
Our litigation seeks to ensure that the protection of fundamental rights does not end at Europe’s borders — and that states cannot evade their human rights obligations by outsourcing violence, shielding perpetrators, or refusing to cooperate with international justice.
Application:
13270/25
Court:
European Court of Human Rights
Respondent State: Italy
Filed:
16 April 2025
Communicated:
13 May 2026
Status:
Pending — Priority under Rule 41
Convention Rights:
Articles 2 and 3
Partner: European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
Y v. Italy concerns Italy’s failure to execute an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Osama Elmasry Njeem, also known as Almasri, a senior figure within Libya’s Special Deterrence Force/RADA and a person accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The applicant is a survivor of detention, torture, forced labour and violence in Libya. After fleeing South Sudan and reaching Libya, he was detained in several facilities, including Al-Jadida detention centre and the Mitiga military compound, where he alleges that he was tortured and forced to participate in a military group operating under Almasri’s authority.
He eventually escaped Libya and arrived in Italy in June 2022, where he was granted international protection.
Years later, the international justice process brought the man accused of responsibility for some of those crimes onto Italian territory.
From Mitiga to Italy
On 18 January 2025, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Osama Elmasry Njeem for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at Mitiga Prison.
The allegations against him include murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and imprisonment.
Italian authorities arrested Almasri in Turin on 19 January 2025.
Two days later, however, the Rome Court of Appeal ordered his release. Instead of surrendering him to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Italian authorities returned him to Libya aboard an Italian state aircraft.
For survivors who had provided testimony and evidence concerning crimes committed in Libya, the decision did not merely represent the escape of a suspect. It raised a fundamental question:
Can a European state refuse to cooperate with an international arrest warrant concerning torture and crimes against humanity without violating the rights of the survivors of those crimes?
The Case Before Strasbourg
On 16 April 2025, Y brought an application against Italy before the European Court of Human Rights.
The application was submitted by a legal team led by Professor Andrea Saccucci and Professor Chantal Meloni, with the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Refugees in Libya.
Y argues that Italy’s failure to execute the ICC arrest warrant and surrender Almasri violated the procedural obligations arising under:
Article 2 — Right to Life
States have obligations not only to refrain from unlawfully taking life but, in certain circumstances, to ensure effective investigation and accountability for serious violations of the right to life.
Article 3 — Prohibition of Torture
The prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment is absolute. The case asks whether the obligations flowing from Article 3 also require meaningful cooperation with international accountability mechanisms when those mechanisms seek to prosecute alleged perpetrators of torture.
A Question Beyond One Case
Y v. Italy raises a question that reaches beyond the conduct of one government and the fate of one accused person.
International criminal justice depends upon states.
The International Criminal Court has no police force capable of entering a country and carrying out an arrest on its own. When a person wanted by the ICC enters the territory of a State Party, the effectiveness of international justice depends upon that state’s willingness to execute the Court’s requests.
The case therefore examines the relationship between two systems of international law:
the European Convention on Human Rights and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
It asks whether a state’s obligation to protect the right to life and the prohibition of torture includes a duty to cooperate with an international court seeking accountability for those very violations.
For survivors, this question is not theoretical. When states shelter, release or return alleged perpetrators beyond the reach of justice, the consequences are carried by those who survived their crimes.
The Court Communicates the Case
On 13 May 2026, the European Court of Human Rights communicated Y v. Italy to the Italian Government.
The Court publicly announced the case on 29 May 2026 together with Z v. Italy, a separate application brought by another alleged survivor of crimes committed under Almasri’s authority.
The Court granted the cases priority under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court.
Communication means that the case has passed an important preliminary stage and that the Court has formally asked the Italian Government to respond to questions concerning the application.
It does not mean that the Court has already found Italy responsible for a violation. The case remains pending.
Among the questions now before the Court is whether Italy had procedural obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention toward the applicant and whether those obligations extended to cooperation with the International Criminal Court.
Why This Case Matters
Y v. Italy is among the first cases to place directly before the European Court of Human Rights the question of whether a state’s refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court can itself engage that state’s obligations under the European Convention.
For Refugees in Libya, the case is part of a wider struggle against a system in which violence committed against refugees and migrants in Libya has too often been separated from the European policies, institutions and decisions that sustain it.
Accountability cannot stop with the person who commits torture inside a prison.
It must also examine the structures that enable the crime, the institutions that finance or cooperate with its perpetrators, and the states that possess the power to deliver justice but choose not to use it.
Case Timline
18 January 2025
The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Osama Elmasry Njeem for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
19 January 2025
Italian police arrest Almasri in Turin.
21 January 2025
Almasri is released following a decision of the Rome Court of Appeal and returned to Libya aboard an Italian state aircraft.
16 April 2025
Y v. Italy is lodged before the European Court of Human Rights.
14 October 2025
Refugees in Libya and ECCHR publicly announce the application.
13 May 2026
The European Court of Human Rights communicates the application to the Italian Government.
29 May 2026
The Court publicly announces Y v. Italy, application no. 13270/25, together with Z v. Italy. The proceedings are given priority.
Current status
Pending before the European Court of Human Rights.
DOCUMENTS & RESOURCES
Court Documents
Related Legal Materials
In cooperation with ECCHR
Media Coverage About the Case
Osservatorio federiciano CEDU – University of Naples Federico II
Caso Njeem (Almasri): Governo italiano sotto accusa per presunte violazioni della Convenzione
Legal analysis of Y v. Italy (13270/25) and Z v. Italy, the Court’s priority treatment, and the alleged Convention violations arising from Italy’s failure to surrender Almasri to the ICC.
13 Jun 2026
Doughty Street Chambers
Italy’s failure to cooperate with the ICC in the Almasri case under review by the European Court of Human Rights
Detailed legal account of the communication of Y v. Italy and Z v. Italy, the questions put to Italy, and the significance of Strasbourg examining duties to cooperate with the ICC.
05 Jun 2026
InfoMigrants
L'Italie visée par deux plaintes auprès de la CEDH pour avoir libér é le tortionnaire de migrants libyen Osama Almasri Najim
French-language international coverage of the two Strasbourg complaints brought by survivors after Italy released and returned Almasri instead of surrendering him to the ICC.
01 Jun 2026
Il Fatto Quotidiano
Caso Almasri, la Cedu: “Presentati due ricorsi contro l’Italia” da cittadini africani “vittime di torture” in Libia
Coverage of the communicated applications, the alleged violations of fundamental rights and the priority examination of Italy’s failure to execute the ICC warrant.
29 May 2026
l’Unità
Almasri, alla Cedu i ricorsi contro l’Italia per il mancato arresto del boia libico: sono di due vittime di tortura
Italian coverage recounting the experiences of the two applicants, including Y’s detention at Al-Jadida and Mitiga, and their challenge to Italy’s non-surrender of Almasri.
29 May 2026
University of Milan – International Criminal Law Clinic
Alcuni sviluppi relativi alla mancata consegna di Almasri alla Corte penale internazionale
Legal-clinic update on the Almasri proceedings, including the newly registered ECHR application against Italy and its relationship to the ICC cooperation dispute.
21 Oct 2025
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
Italy to answer to European Court of Human Rights after failure to surrender suspected Libyan torturer to the ICC
ECCHR’s announcement of the application supported with Refugees in Libya, arguing that Italy breached its duties under Articles 2 and 3 by failing to cooperate with the ICC.
14 Oct 2025
Refugees in Libya
Italy to answer to European Court of Human Rights after failure to surrender suspected Libyan torturer to the ICC
Refugees in Libya’s publication announcing the survivor-led application supported with ECCHR and the legal challenge to Italy’s failure to surrender Almasri to the ICC.
14 Oct 2025
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