Human rights groups voiced outrage Wednesday after Italy released a Libyan warlord on a technicality, after he was arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Human rights organizations and opposition lawmakers in Italy expressed their anger on Wednesday after the country released a Libyan warlord due to a legal technicality.

Italy detained a Libyan suspect on the back of an ICC arrest warrant, but he was swiftly released and flown home to Tripoli.

Ossama Anjiem, who runs a major Libyan prison, was in Italy to watch a soccer match. He returned home after an Italian court found issues with the warrant for his arrest.

ROME (AP) — Italian police arrested a Libyan warlord on a warrant from the International Criminal Court, but an Italian tribunal refused to approve the arrest and he was instead sent back to Libya, Italy's state-run RAI television reported.

The head of Libya's judicial police has been arrested after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant over war crimes allegations, media reports say. Osama Najim, who directs Tripoli's Mitiga detention centre, was reportedly arrested on Sunday in the Italian city of Turin.

Al-Masri had been arrested Sunday in Turin, where he reportedly had attended the Juventus-Milan soccer match the night before. The ICC warrant, dated the day before, accused al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya starting in 2015 that are punishable with life in prison.

Italian authorities released the director of a notorious detention camp who had been arrested in Turin on an ICC war crimes warrant.