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.
Since he was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022, the man has denied he was 41-year-old Amanuel Walid, also known as Tewelde Goitom. In earlier procedural hearings, the suspect 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 suspect faces charges of membership of a human trafficking ring, money laundering, use of violence and extortion.
According to prosecutors, Goitom and his organisation set up a migration route to Europe via Libya, where they detained African migrants in warehouses and tortured them to extort ransoms from their families.
At the opening of the trial, his defence asked judges to drop the majority of the charges on the grounds that Dutch courts did not have jurisdiction because there was no clear link to the Netherlands.
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.
While this may apply to some of the extortion charges if victims were in the Netherlands, defence lawyer Simcha Plas argued that the trafficking and torture charges should be dismissed because they happened in Libya and most victims were trafficked to Italy and not the Netherlands.
Prosecutors were due to respond later on Monday.
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.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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