Dutch court tries an Eritrean man accused of brutal migrant smuggling

ZWOLLE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court opened a trial Monday of an Eritrean man accused of involvement in a brutal migrant smuggling network.

Prosecutors say Tewelde Goitom, also known as Amanuel Walid, ran an operation bringing East African migrants to Europe under horrific conditions, demanding huge sums of money from their relatives to free them from camps in Libya.

The accused, wearing jeans and a blue puffer jacket, said that he is the victim of mistaken identity. He was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022 from Ethiopia, where he was convicted of similar crimes.

“I am still the one I said I was earlier,” he said when asked to introduce himself, speaking via an interpreter.

The trial is one of the largest human smuggling cases ever brought in the Netherlands, prosecutors said. It will continue for the next three weeks.

The trial has been delayed by the lengthy extradition process of another man, Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who escaped during trial in Ethiopia in 2020. Described as one of ’’the world’s most wanted″ human traffickers, Habtemariam is currently being held in the United Arab Emirates but will be extradited to the Netherlands.

Prosecutors want to join the two cases, while the defense hopes that Habtemariam can provide evidence of Goitom’s innocence.

Dutch prosecutors say they have jurisdiction to put him on trial because some of his alleged crimes happened in the Netherlands. They say that relatives of migrants seeking to make the perilous journey from East Africa through Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe were extorted by people smugglers.

Defense lawyers contest this. “There is no clear connection to the Netherlands,” Simcha Plas argued, saying that the payments were made in Eritrea or via the UAE, and that the country lacks jurisdiction.

According to refugee aid group VluchtelingenWerk, the Netherlands saw an uptick in young migrants from Eritrea in recent years, fleeing a repressive government. The country has compulsory national service, and according to a recent U.N. investigation, conscripts experience torture sexual violence and forced labor.

The Dutch statistics office estimates there are around 28,000 people of Eritrean descent living in the Netherlands.

Since winning independence from Ethiopia three decades ago, the small Horn of Africa nation has been led by President Isaias Afwerki, who has never held an election.

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Molly Quell, The Associated Press