By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -An Eritrean man accused of being a trafficker who tortured and extorted money from African refugees and migrants heading for Europe in warehouses in Libya told Dutch judges on Monday that the prosecution had got the wrong man.
The suspect faces charges of membership of a human trafficking ring, use of violence and extortion.
According to prosecutors, 41-year-old Amanuel Walid, also known as Tewelde Goitom, and his organisation set up a migration route to Europe via Libya, where they detained thousands of African migrants in warehouses and tortured them to extort ransoms from their families.
LIBYA PEOPLE-SMUGGLING ROUTE
The trial is the largest human trafficking case ever in the Netherlands and one of the few in Europe looking into criminal networks trafficking migrants through Libya. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi during a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean.
“We see Walid (Goitom) as one of the most prolific human traffickers on the central Mediterranean route,” prosecutor Martijn Kappeyne van de Coppello told the judges.
Since he was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022, the suspect has denied he was Goitom. In earlier procedural hearings, the man gave another name and another date of birth and on Monday told judges he held to that.
“I am still the one I said I was earlier,” he said, through an interpreter.
The judges tried to question the suspect more about his identity, asking him why so many of the around 200 victims questioned in the case identified him as Goitom from pictures, but he invoked his right to remain silent.
His defence had argued majority of the charges should be dismissed on the grounds that Dutch courts did not have jurisdiction because there was no clear link to the Netherlands, but the judges rejected that and said the case could go ahead.
Under the concept of universal jurisdiction, Dutch law broadly allows cases to be brought against foreign nationals for crimes committed abroad if victims are in the Netherlands.
The judges did agree with a defence argument that charges of money laundering should be dropped because they were not included in the initial extradition request.
The trial is expected to run until November 26, with a date for judgement to be announced later.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Alex Richardson)
