Eritrean Amanuel Walid is tried in The Netherlands for leading an international criminal network that detained, tortured, raped and extorted Eritrean refugees in Libya.
“I had open wounds everywhere, blood, and I could not sit. The only thing I could think of was when am I gonna die, tomorrow it’s going to be me. It’s cruel.” On November 4, the judge in a Dutch court read the testimony of H, an Eritrean man who was held in a Libyan detention camp. He arrived in Italy in 2017, aged 35, and now lives in the Netherlands. His testimony, along with those of other victims and witnesses, is part of the largest-ever Dutch human smuggling trial, which started on November 3 and should last until November 26 with a verdict expected in January 2026. Eritrean national Amanuel Walid, also known as Tewelde Goitom, is accused of leading an international criminal network that detained, tortured, raped and extorted Eritrean refugees in Libya.
Dutch and international journalists, lawyers and Eritrean civil society filled the courtroom and an additional gallery of the court of Zwolle, a city 100 km to the east of Amsterdam. This is one of the few trials in Europe dealing with an alleged high-profile human trafficker operating in Libya. And it is the first Dutch trial that can look at the whole migration journey, from Eritrea to Ethiopia, Libya, and Europe, says Gerben Wilbrink of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office to Justice Info. “That’s really something which makes this case unique.”
The Netherlands could move forward because many Eritreans living in the country said they were extorted from Walid’s network. The suspect was extradited from Ethiopia to the Netherlands in October 2022, on accusation of participating in a criminal organisation involved in human smuggling, hostage-taking, extortion and sexual violence between 2014 and 2018. The network operated detention camps, mainly Bani Walid in Libya, where people were held and tortured until families in Europe paid ransoms of thousands of US dollars. 17 preliminary hearings were held in the case since January 2023.
THE DARK SIDE OF ERITREA
The 41-year-old suspect entered the courtroom escorted by police, his face seemingly emotionless. He wore jeans, trainers, and a blue puffer jacket fully zipped up. “I’m not the person you are looking for, I’m not Walid”, he leaned slightly forward, back curved, as he spoke through an interpreter. “Everything is in the hands of my lawyer, I don’t speak the language, I don’t know this country.” He denied the accusation and that he was ever in Libya. For the rest of the hearings, he invoked his right to remain silent.
Presiding judge René Melaard said that it was impossible to establish his real identity, as he was using a false passport, and they could not find any official documents. He added that the name provided by the suspect himself was not correct, and the file contained 20 different aliases used to call him. “Perhaps that’s not the most important aspect of this investigation. What matters, of course, is whether or not you are the person that many witnesses say is the individual known as Walid”, said the judge.
Standing in front of the court, around 25 Eritreans demonstrated with banners demanding a halt to human trafficking networks. “Stop transnational repression from the Eritrean regime”, they chanted, calling for “an investigation into the link between the criminal network that perpetrated human trafficking and the Eritrean authority”. Since gaining independence from Ethiopia three decades ago, Eritrea has been led by Isaias Afwerki. There are no civil liberties in the country, and people have to serve a long and brutal military service. Vluchtelingen Werk, an organisation helping refugees in the Netherlands, estimates that 28.000 people with an Eritrean background live in the Netherlands. They often remain under threat and are forced to pay a 2% diaspora tax and other financial contributions to the Eritrean government, fearing consequences like denial of consular services or reprisal against their families, according to a 2017 report commissioned by the Dutch government.
Eritrean men and women from different parts of the Netherlands have followed the case over the years and gathered at the court to finally see the charges being discussed publicly. Among them was Tadese Teklebrhan, the chair of the Dutch NGO Eritrean Human Rights Defender(EHRD). “We don’t have any experience of such trials in our country, so everybody is happy to be here”, he told Justice Info. Because of the widespread interest, the court is streaming the trial in 3 languages, Dutch, English and Tigrinya.
THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF WALID AND KIDANE
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe. According to the researchers behind the book ‘Enslaved’, between 2016 and 2021, around 114,000 Eritreans arrived in Europe through Libya. They are estimated to have paid almost $1 billion to trafficking networks.
“We see Walid as one of the most prolific human traffickers on the central Mediterranean route,” prosecutor Martijn Kappeyne van de Coppello told the judges. The prosecution obtained around 200 victims’ statements, says Wilbrink. Around 30 testimonies were included in the indictment. They were chosen because they had a link to the Netherlands and the victims lived nearby and could be heard by the court, explains Wilbrink. “But if you look into the file and you read all the stories, it comes to thousands of people involved.”
The scope of the file is “quite extraordinary”, stated judge Melaard. There are 25000 pages for an investigation that saw cooperation across borders. The Dutch investigation started in 2018, when prosecutors found out about extortion phone calls to relatives in the Netherlands. They soon joined forces with judicial and police authorities in Italy, as well as the United Kingdom, Spain, Europol, and since 2022, the International Criminal Court(ICC).
The case involved Walid, five other people located in the Netherlands and suspected of taking part in the extortions, and another traffickers’ leader, Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam. Kidane has been described by the Dutch police as “one of the most notorious and cruel human smugglers in the world”. Arrested in Ethiopia in 2020 together with Walid – who has been convicted on charges of human trafficking – he escaped a year later, only to be recaptured in Sudan in 2023. He was convicted of financial offences in the United Arab Emirates, and Dutch prosecutor Petra Hoekstra has requested extradition to try him for trafficking. After delays, he is now expected to travel soon, and the judges still hope to hear Kidane as a witness in the ongoing trial.
This article was first published by Justice Info
