The Zwolle court delivered an exemplary verdict this Tuesday, January 27: Amanuel Walid (alias Tewelde Goitom), an Eritrean national, was sentenced to the maximum term of 20 years in prison . He was found guilty of leading a criminal organization of rare cruelty, specializing in trafficking migrants between East Africa and Europe.

An institutionalized system of torture

For years, particularly between 2014 and 2018 in the Libyan region of Bani Walid , the accused oversaw a veritable "business of suffering." The modus operandi described during the trial is chilling:

1. Extortion under torture: Migrants were beaten or tortured while on the phone with relatives back in the Netherlands or elsewhere, in order to force them to pay a ransom.
2. Inhumane conditions: Held in unsanitary camps, the exiles were deprived of care, starved and crammed together.
3. Deliberate endangerment: Only after payment were the victims thrown onto makeshift boats to cross the Mediterranean, a journey from which many never returned.

"Without the slightest humanity"

Judge René Melaard condemned the defendant's behavior, emphasizing that his sole motive was greed, disregarding human dignity. While the prosecution had also sought charges of sexual assault and hostage-taking, the court declared itself incompetent to rule on these specific charges, as the events in question took place outside the Netherlands.

A rejected defense

In his defense, Amanuel Walid denied the charges, claiming mistaken identity . His lawyers also attempted to have the trial dismissed on the grounds that he had already been sentenced in Ethiopia in 2021 to 18 years in prison for similar offenses. The court rejected these arguments, stating that it had proof of his identity "beyond a reasonable doubt" and noting that the Ethiopian sentence had never been enforced.

The context: The city of Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, is infamous for its "ghettos" where traffickers operate with impunity. Survivors' accounts regularly describe it as "the worst place on earth."