Dutch prosecutors seek 20-year prison sentence for Eritrea-Libya trafficking suspect

By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Prosecutors in the Netherlands on Wednesday asked judges to convict an Eritrean suspect accused of being a notorious trafficker who tortured African refugees and migrants, and to sentence him to 20 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, 42-year-old Amanuel Walid - known as Tewelde Goitom - ran a migration route to Europe via Libya along with his organisation. The prosecutors, whose investigation focussed on the period between 2014 and 2019, say the group detained thousands of African migrants in warehouses and tortured them to extort ransoms from their families. 

At trial at a district court in the Dutch town of Zwolle, Goitom, who was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022, only spoke to tell judges they have the wrong man and to invoke his right to remain silent. 

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.

HARROWING ACCOUNTS BY VICTIMS

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. 

Earlier this week several victims gave harrowing accounts of being kept in an overcrowded warehouse in Libya with no medical care and very little food and water.

A victim only identified in court as E. told judges he was brutally beaten by Goitom with a water hose and watched people die around him. 

When E. was finally put on a boat to Europe, it was a rickety vessel with no engine and he sang hymns with his fellow passengers as they were sure they would die, he said.

"I want to get peace of mind, I want to ask Walid (Goitom) if they did eventually bury (E.'s friend who died in the warehouse)", he said in his victim statement.

The defence will present their closing arguments on Monday. A ruling is expected in January, subject to change, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said.

Lawyers for Goitom have previously argued the charges against him should be dismissed because there is no clear Dutch link.

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.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, additional reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Aidan Lewis)