Overview
- The Paris judicial court opened the investigation Wednesday, moving the case into a judge-led inquiry after a March ruling by the Paris appeals chamber.
- Two French groups, the Human Rights League and Utopia 56, filed a 2024 complaint that says Leggeri encouraged agents to help Libyan and Greek forces intercept migrant boats, which they argue amounts to complicity in crimes against humanity and torture.
- Prosecutors and a judge had first deemed the case inadmissible, but the appeals chamber ordered fact-finding to determine any material aid provided to Libyan authorities and whether those acts can be legally imputed to Leggeri.
- Leggeri’s lawyers said the opening was a mechanical step ordered by the court, while the NGOs called it a chance to test possible criminal responsibility for deadly failures in Mediterranean border control.
- NGOs say Frontex under Leggeri shifted from sea patrols to more aerial spotting that alerted Libyan coastguards earlier, a tactic they argue pushed people back into abuse in a region where the IOM counts about 82,000 dead or missing since 2014, including 34,000 in the Mediterranean.