An Eritrean man accused of running a brutal trafficking network that tortured and extorted African migrants in Libya told a Dutch court on Monday that prosecutors had misidentified him.
The defendant faces counts including participation in a trafficking organisation, violence and extortion.
Prosecutors say the man is 41-year-old Amanuel Walid, also known as Tewelde Goitom, alleged to have organised a route to Europe via Libya, where thousands of migrants were held in warehouses and abused to force relatives to pay ransoms.
The case is the largest human-trafficking trial ever held in the Netherlands and among the few in Europe to probe Libyan smuggling networks. Since Muammar Gaddafi’s 2011 overthrow, Libya has become a main transit point for those fleeing conflict and poverty across the Mediterranean.
“We view Walid (Goitom) as one of the most prolific traffickers on the central Mediterranean route,” prosecutor Martijn Kappeyne van de Coppello told the panel of judges.
Extradited to the Netherlands in 2022, the suspect has consistently denied being Goitom. In earlier hearings he supplied a different name and date of birth, and on Monday reiterated, via an interpreter: “I am still the one I said I was earlier.”
When judges pressed him on why roughly 200 alleged victims had identified him as Goitom from photographs, he invoked his right to remain silent.
Defence lawyers sought to throw out most charges, arguing Dutch courts lack jurisdiction because of limited links to the Netherlands. The judges rejected that claim, allowing the trial to proceed. Under Dutch universal-jurisdiction provisions, cases against foreign nationals for crimes abroad can be heard if victims are present in the Netherlands.
The court did, however, drop a money-laundering charge, finding it was not included in the original extradition request.
Hearings are scheduled to run until Nov. 26, with the date of a verdict to be set later.