What if the Almasri and Paragon cases are connected? David Yambio, victim of Libyan torturer and hit by spyware

From the correspondent in Strasbourg – The Italian government is caught between the scandal of the return of Libyan executioner Almasri and the disturbing case of journalists and activists spied on through Paragon Solutions’ sophisticated software. The united opposition calls on Giorgia Meloni to put on her face and provide convincing explanations. Meanwhile, a story emerges from Strasbourg that has the air of being more than a curious coincidence: that of David Yambio, a young South Sudanese refugee and president of the NGO Refugees in Libya, a victim of Almasri in Mitiga and hit by the spyware attack.

His testimony threatens to be a ticking time bomb. Invited to the European Parliament in Strasbourg by French Green MEP Mounir Satouri, he showed a copy of the email with which Apple informed him that on November 13 his phone had been compromised by spyware. On the device, Yambio had sensitive information related to dozens of Libyan lager victims, which he has been documenting with his association since he managed to arrive in Italy in 2022. Yambio announced that “a report on this cyber attack will be published in the coming days,” which he is working on with a team of investigators.

The point is that intertwined in his story are Libyan prisons for migrants, the torturer Almasri escorted back to Libya by the Italian government despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, the ongoing attempt to discredit the Hague Court, and spying by unidentified government apparatuses. “In my country, Sudan, I was already a child soldier and ended up in Libya after fleeing my country. When I arrived in Libya, I was tortured, enslaved, and dehumanized beyond imaginable,” Yambio told a press conference at the EU Parliament. The young man, who has tried to escape from Libya across the central Mediterranean five times, each time was “abducted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan Coast Guard and brought back.” The rejections, Yambio charged, “were supported by Frontex, which operates in the central Mediterranean and relays information about boats in distress to Libyan militias.”

In one of his detentions in Libya in 2019, he was “sold as a slave” to Osama Almasri Najim himself, head of the Libyan judicial police. “From that moment, I was sent to Mitiga Air Base, where I was forced to work in construction and even at the front, carrying ammunition and doing all those inhumane things. Not only that, I was personally tortured by him in different ways that I don’t know how to describe because I didn’t deserve it. Those who died, events I witnessed, also did not deserve it,” Yambio continued with extreme lucidity.

It is from that moment that his profile could begin to “bother.” Yambio began, already in Libya, to document human rights violations “in the hope that justice would come,” and—since he founded Refugees in Libya—to “work with international institutions, judicial bodies, including the ICC, to ensure that they can do something because they are our only hope.” That is why the Italian government’s decision not to hand over his torturer to The Hague “devastated” him. The young activist does not mince words: “Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ministers Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi, and Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano are immediately responsible,” he attacked.

The last element, the one communicated to Yambio with information verified by Apple, is the most disturbing. Why was he, along with Mediterranea Saving Humans founder Luca Casarini and Fanpage editor Francesco Cancellato, spied on through software usually provided to government apparatuses to track dangerous criminals? Yambio rephrased the question thus, “Does it mean that I am in a country that is spying on me and sending private information to Almasri or any other torturers who are looking for me?”

While waiting for the report announced by the activist—and the investigation to be undertaken by the Palermo prosecutor’s office to which Casarini has filed a complaint —even the opposition is beginning to wonder whether the two seemingly separate cases are children of the same “national interest,” which ultimately leads to the agreements in place with Libya to prevent migrants from reaching Italian shores. In a flash mob organized by the 5 Star Movement delegation in Strasbourg, MEPs displayed posters with the PM’s face and the question “Blackmailed?” The 5 Star MEPs, together with the Democratic Party and Green Left Alliance, insist that Brussels intervene on both fronts. They jointly asked for the establishment of an inquiry committee by the EU Parliament on the Paragon case. They insisted that the European Parliament address the issue of attacks on the International Criminal Court in a debate.

“The Italian government is confused, but there is a clear attempt to delegitimise an institution that vigorously fights war crimes,” attacked 5-Star Gaetano Pedullà. While the delegation leader, Pasquale Tridico, said, “In our opinion, the two cases are connected.” Meanwhile, Meloni called on the Justice Ministry to mend the rift with The Hague, which has opened an investigation into the Italian government for failing to cooperate in Almasri’s arrest.