Dutch court sentences Eritrean man to 20 years for cruel people smuggling operation

Описание: (27 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zwolle, Netherlands - 27 January 2026
1. Wide of an empty courtroom
2. Close of an empty chair where convicted man Amanuel Walid was sitting during the court ruling
3. Mid of the empty table of Amanuel Walid's defense lawyers
4. Close up of Margriet van Bruggen, spokesperson of the court, in an interview
5. Close up on the cameraman
6. SOUNDBITE (Dutch) Margriet van Bruggen, spokesperson of the court:
"It is the maximum sentence that the Dutch judge may give. A twenty-year prison sentence. And why did the Dutch judge impose such a high sentence? This has to do with the large scale on which the crimes were committed, the gruesomeness of what happened. The people lived in fear of death. Terrible things have been done to them, they have been abused, they have been starved, they have been extorted. All those crimes resulted in the Dutch judge ruling the maximum sentence."
7. Mid of the prosecutors' table in the courtroom
8. Mid of Gerben Wilbrink, spokesperson of the prosecution, in an interview
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Gerben Wilbrink, spokesperson of the prosecution:
"Yes it is an unusual case, the national police took a lot of effort to do that, together with European partners of course. So there were a lot witness statements took, but also a lot investigation on the internet, with Facebook, with phones data to find out where suspects were or where victims were. And in the end we put it all together into a story to tell to the court, in which we could prove that this all happened, these hideous crimes."
10. Mid of the judges' table
11. Close up on the board reading (Dutch): "Judge"
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Brechtje Vossenberg, lawyer representing victims of people smuggling:
"My clients were four of a great number of survivors that offered testimony in this case, part of a massive investigation by the Dutch prosecutorial authorities. And you do that in the hope that not only can you help to establish the truth, but also that you can have some justice at the end of it. So that was what they were hoping for. They were hoping that it would be established that this man is who they say he is, that he is Walid, and that he's responsible for the goings on in these camps and for what they also suffered while they were there."
13. Empty chair where Amanuel Walid was sitting during the court ruling
STORYLINE:
A Dutch court convicted an Eritrean man on Tuesday of people smuggling and extortion and sentenced him to the maximum 20 years imprisonment.

Tewelde Goitom, also known as Amanuel Walid, was found guilty by the Overijssel District Court of mistreating migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe and extorting money from their families in the Netherlands to pay for the risky journeys.

The court rejected his defense that he was not the person identified by witnesses as a leader of a notorious smuggling network that shipped people from Libya to Europe and often onward to the Netherlands, where they applied for asylum.

Goitom was also ordered to pay more than 30,000 euros ($35,000) in damages to victims.

He has two weeks to appeal his conviction.

Migrants seeking to get to Europe were held by Goitom's network in camps in Libya, where they were “mistreated while being forced to call family members, who were pressured to transfer money for their relatives’ passage,” the court said in a statement.

“Only when their passage to Europe had been paid for was a migrant eligible to leave the camp and continue their journey.”





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