Osama Elmasry Njeem was released and flown home to Tripoli two days after being detained last month in northern Italy on the back of the ICC warrant which said he was suspected of the murder, torture and rape of detainees in Libya.

Italy’s justice minister has strongly defended the government’s decision to free and repatriate a Libyan warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court

The justice minister said the court had noted discrepancies concerning dates within the arrest warrant, with the same crimes listed as occurring in February 2011 and in other parts in February 2015.