Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

migrant crisis

Police hunting notorious people-smuggler may have had wrong man extradited

Italian prosecutors are investigating the claims that it may be a case of mistaken identity.

ITALIAN PROSECUTORS ARE investigating whether the wrong man was extradited to Italy on charges of running a migrant trafficking network after reports suggested it may be a case of mistaken identity.

Eritrean Medhanie Yehdego Mered (35) dubbed “the general” and described as “cynical and unscrupulous”, is accused of shipping thousands of people to Europe and sending some to a watery grave.

Capture The man believed to be Mered Medhaine in a photo released by the UK National Crime Agency, according to the BBC (left). The man extradited to Italy (right).

Italian police announced yesterday that Mered, arrested in Sudan with the help of Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), had been extradited to Italy.

They released video images and photographs of him being brought off a plane in Rome (below).

CkayhcbWgAAcvA1 Polizia di Stato Twitter Polizia di Stato Twitter

But Palermo prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, was forced to admit today his team was “carrying out the necessary checks” after the BBC spoke to friends and family of the arrested man who said the authorities got the wrong man.

AFP also interviewed people in Sudan who said the detainee was not Medhanie Yehdego Mered.

“The identification of the suspect, his arrest, his handing over and his extradition to Italy were communicated to us in an official manner by the NCA and the Sudanese authorities through Interpol,” Italian media quoted Lo Voi as saying.

An NCA spokeswoman said:

We’re aware of the media reports. It’s a bit too soon to speculate at the moment.

Italian newspaper the Corriere della Sera said the detainee is due to go before a preliminary judge tomorrow.

Secret mover

Friends of the arrested man told AFP his name was Mered Tesfamariam and he was a 27-year-old migrant.

Eritrean, Tasfie Haggose (38), said in Khartoum:

I know this man since he arrived in Sudan in 2014, his name is Mered Tesfamariam. The person who has been taken to Rome is not the general. The man taken to Rome doesn’t even speak Arabic.

“The general is well known among Eritreans, especially among those who have tried to cross the Mediterranean,” he said.

“The general moves secretly. He does not deal directly with people who want to migrate. He deals through mediators or brokers.”

Fellow Eritrean, Barhi Kobron (28), said he too knew the detainee:

This man used to move freely among people, which is not how the general behaves. The general has no house in Khartoum. He moves between Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, and between Khartoum and eastern Sudan.

The Corriere della Sera spoke to an Eritrean in Palermo who said he had grown up with Mered Tesfamariam who was like “a brother” to him.

“What happened is wrong. My sister was with him in Khartoum and told me he was taken by the Sudanese police while he was at a coffee bar,” the man identified only as Fishaye said.

Wanted list 

The suspect Medhanie Yehdego Mered has been on a wanted list for people smuggling since last year.

He is accused of packing migrants onto a boat that sank in 2013 off the island of Lampedusa, claiming at least 360 lives in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean.

Referred to in wiretapped conversations between his alleged subordinate traffickers as “the general”, Mered is accused of organising the smuggling of up to 8,000 people a year on migrant boats.

Italy, Sudan and Britain had hailed his capture as a significant blow to the people smuggling business as Europe moves to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.

According to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) over 48,500 people have arrived in Italy by boat so far this year.

More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014.

Read:’A wake-up call’: There are 800 people living in modern slavery in Ireland>

Read: 100 people feared dead after shipwreck off Libya >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
11
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.