Italian authorities are currently investigating two Libyan militants, Abdel Rahman Milad, known as Bija, and Osama al-Kuni Ibrahim. Both men are accused of human trafficking, torture and other crimes against immigrants.
Italian newspaper Avenile reported today that the investigation was carried out by the Agrigento City Prosecutor’s Office and had collected “hundreds of testimonies and testimonies” linking the two militants not only to human trafficking but also to the crime of fuel smuggling. , weapons and drugs.
News of the investigation comes especially in the wake of the Italian Court of Cassation’s decision to penalize the sending of rescued refugees and migrants in the central Mediterranean to the Libyan coast guard on the grounds that the North African country is not a safe port. Ta.
Avvenir said the investigation revealed that Milad and al-Kuni were linked to three torturers who were arrested in Sicily and each sentenced to 20 years in prison. Italian prosecutors have admitted that the three defendants worked for Milad and Osama al-Kuni to commit extreme torture, often leading to death, of refugees.
Of the dozens of depositions collected by Agrigento police, one dates back to 2019. Police in Lampedusa were individually interrogating some migrants who arrived in Italy via the Libyan city of Zawiya, where Milad and his associates operate.
Migrants rescued by an Italian sailing ship in July 2019 detailed that “a Libyan man named Villa decides who gets on board the ship,” Avvenir reported.
“H was violent and armed. We were all afraid of him,” the immigrants testified, as quoted by an Italian newspaper.
Asked if he had ever heard his real name, one immigrant confidently replied, “They called him Abd Rahman,” Avvenir reported.
In 2018, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Milad (born July 27, 1986) for smuggling people into Libya. Mr. Milad headed the regional coast guard in the northwestern coastal town of Zawiya, which the United Nations said was “consistently associated with violence against migrants and other people smugglers.”
A United Nations panel of experts said in 2017 that Milad, along with other coast guard officers, was “directly involved in the sinking of the migrant boat using firearms.” The panel said he was suspected of opening a migrant detention center in Zawiya, where abuses against migrants took place, and was a “key collaborator” in fuel smuggling.
In 2019, an investigation by the Italian newspaper Avvenir documented that Mr. Milad was in Italy for a series of official meetings in Sicily and Rome in May 2017, and that he was interviewed by then-Interior Minister Marco. Criticism of Mr. Minniti increased. Avvenir said Milad was introduced at the meeting as “commander of the Libyan coast guard.” Minniti denied any wrongdoing, saying Italy was unaware of the allegations of criminal activity against Milado at the time.
Milad later joined forces with the former Libyan Government of National Accord, led by former Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, to fight against General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) during the late military campaign to seize western Libya in 2019. Become. .
Nevertheless, he would later be arrested by the same government in October 2020. This move was welcomed by foreign countries at the time. However, he was released in April 2021, six months after his arrest.
Under the current Libyan government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, Milad received a “letter of recognition and appreciation” in October 2022 directly from Fatallah Al Zini, who is currently the youth minister in Dbeibeh’s cabinet. Two months later, leaked documents showed that Dbeibeh’s Justice Ministry asked the Foreign Ministry to remove Milad from international sanctions lists.
A recent report by the United Nations Panel of Experts, dated September 15, 2023, revealed that Mr. Milad used forged UN documents to get off the international sanctions list. These efforts are aimed at the Government of National Unity and are aimed at gaining support from the government for his request for delisting.
The panel of experts said it requested the Dbeibeh government on 25 January 2023 to provide an update on the effective implementation of Mr Milad’s asset freeze and travel ban. As of the date of the report, the expert panel stated that “Libyan authorities have not yet responded.”
Osama Al-Quuni (born April 2, 1976) was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in 2021. Humanitarian organizations and trafficking victims consistently identify him as the de facto administrator of al-Nassr detention center in Zawiya. The United Nations said he had “directly and/or through his subordinates engaged in or provided support for acts that violate applicable international human rights law or amount to human rights violations in Libya.” The United Nations said he often acted on behalf of or at Milad’s direction.
According to the UN Panel of Experts’ report, Milad and al-Quni collaborated with Mohammed al-Amin al-Arabi Kashraf (born December 2, 1985), commander of the Zawiya Oil Facilities Guard. It was revealed that he was also sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. Since 2018, it has further expanded its smuggling network to include armed groups operating in the Warsafana, Sabrata and Zwara regions.
According to the UN report, Mr. Kashhraf does not serve in the hierarchy of Tripoli’s Oil Facilities Guard, but directly oversees the supply of fuel from the Zawiya refinery. “His authority over the Zawiya refinery makes him a central figure in a lucrative fuel smuggling network in western Libya,” the UN report said.
“The expanded Zawiya network now includes elements of the 55th Brigade, the Zawiya Stability Support Equipment Command, in particular its maritime forces, and individual members of the Libyan Coast Guard.
All of them operate with the goal of carrying out the network’s common agenda of obtaining substantial financial and other assets from human trafficking and migrant smuggling operations,” the UN report said.
“The network is an irregularly organized group consisting of al-Nasr, al-Mayah, and al-Zahra detention camps for migrants, as well as multiple transit camps in the Zawiya and Harsha regions where network members have committed serious violations. “We have established a detention system that is consistent with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
Italian newspaper Avvenir reported that the Zawiya network was involved in “oil smuggling through Malta that has been going on for years in connection with the mafias of southern Italy and the Balkans.”