Zwolle Court sentences Eritrean to 20 years for leading violent human trafficking gang

The District Court of Overijssel in Zwolle handed a 20-year prison sentence to 42-year-old Amanuel W. for running a large, highly violent human trafficking network on Tuesday. The court found that the Eritrean trafficked fellow nationals from Libya to Europe on a massive scale and earned substantial sums. The sentence matches the maximum sentence recommendation by the Public Prosecution Service.

Victims in Libyan camps suffered severe abuse, torture, and sexual violence. Relatives in the Netherlands were targeted with phone extortion. Another alleged gang leader was extradited from the United Arab Emirates to the Netherlands in December.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service and the Royal Marechaussee launched an investigation into W. in 2018, in close cooperation with Italian authorities. The probe began in the Netherlands because victims passed through the country and sought asylum.

W. was extradited to the Netherlands in October 2022. He has offered no substantive statements, only asserting that he is not the person authorities claim. In Ethiopia, he had already served an 18-year prison sentence for human trafficking.

The court called the case against W. “exceptional in terms of both scale and seriousness.” It described his crimes as “extremely cruel, violent, and degrading.”

W. operated “without compassion or conscience,” motivated solely by the desire to extract as much money as possible from defenseless people. Witnesses labeled him the most brutal human trafficker they had dealt with. The court noted that victims suffered life-threatening fear in the camps and while being transported. The judgment itself is 100 pages long.

Victims in Libyan camps were subjected to horrific conditions, with witnesses reporting numerous deaths. The court noted that systematic abuse, torture, and sexual violence were routine. W. was found to have played a leading role in these crimes, directing “subordinate accomplices in the camp” and occasionally acting violently himself. A psychiatric evaluation at the Pieter Baan Centre confirmed that he is fully criminally responsible.