Witness, 13, says Almasri hit him, others at Mitiga centre

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 31 - A 13-year-old boy who has been living at a facility for unaccompanied minors in Reggio Calabria since 2022 has told the Avvenire newspaper that he recognized Libyan police commander Nijeem Osama Almasri as the man who abused and hit migrants, including himself and other kids, at the notorious detention facility of Mitiga near Tripoli.
    "He is the man who hit people and gave orders to others, I was also punched by his men", said the teen, who said he was detained at Mitiga three years ago in an interview to the daily paper published on Friday.
    The boy is staying at the Papa Giovanni XXIII community for unaccompanied foreign minors in the Calabrian city.
    The teen said he recognized the official from pictures he saw on a paper as one of the activities organized by the foster home where he is staying is reading the newspapers.
    He said that, while held at the detention facility where thousands of migrants who try to reach Europe are imprisoned, he met the head of the Libyan judicial police, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 2015, arrested in Turin on January 19 and flown back to Libya on a State flight two days later after being freed on a technicality.
    "He was the boss", the teen told Avvenire.
    "He decided the timing" of detention and "who, how and when we had to be moved", he added, saying he still remembers "the names of his men: Ayub, Ossama, Adabae, El Nemir".
    The teen also recalled how he and another boy, a 14-year-old, were hit but the violence ended because "the other migrants rebelled".
    "They got up to defend us because we were too young.
    "So the traffickers started to shoot in the air with their rifles until everyone calmed down", he said. (ANSA).