Dutch prosecutors sentenced on Tuesday 42-year-old Eritrean national to 20 years in prison for leading a criminal organization, human trafficking, and extortion of migrants in Libya.
Prosecutors determined that under the direction of Amanuel W., hundreds of migrants were “rounded up and detained in warehouses in Libya in appalling conditions” between 2014 to 2018. Victims were also subjected to physical abuse, extortion, and starvation. The court also ruled that the convicted human smuggler must pay a total of more than 30,000 euro in compensation to the victims.
OCCRP reported last November that the Dutch court concluded the case against him in what was labeled the “Netherlands’ largest-ever human trafficking case.” The verdict comes years after the Eritrean national was arrested in Ethiopia in 2020 and sentenced to 18 years in prison in Addis Ababa, before being extradited to the Netherlands in late 2022.
