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Alleged Trafficking Kingpin Faces Deportation, Even as Case Against Him
Unravels

Salem Solomon

   An Italian court has ruled that an Eritrean man, Medhane Tesfamariam
   Berhe, who was thought to be a human trafficking kingpin is a victim of
   mistaken identity, but he now faces deportation.

   Medhane had been imprisoned in Italy since 2016, when he was extradited
   from Sudan. For more than three years, Italian prosecutors claimed he
   masterminded an elaborate human trafficking ring, resulting in the
   deaths of hundreds of migrants crossing the Mediterannean Sea. They
   sought a 14-year prison sentence.

   But soon after his arrest, family members, and Medhane's attorney,
   claimed he had been mistaken for another man who shares his first name,
   Medhane Yehdego Mered, a widely known trafficker nicknamed "The
   General."

   In the years since his arrest, DNA evidence, vocal analysis and
   eyewitness testimonies have all supported Medhane's innocence. But
   Italian prosecutors, who believed they had nabbed a high-profile
   trafficker, pressed on.

   Mistaken identity

   Friday, a panel of judges agreed with Medhane and his family, conceding
   that Italian authorities, with the help of Britain's National Crime
   Agency, had apprehended the wrong person.

   But Medhane's ordeal is far from over. The judges ruled that he had
   abetted traffickers and [1]sentenced him to time already served and a
   fine of more than $100,000. Following the verdict, authorities moved
   Medhane to a detention center in Palermo, a coastal city in Sicily. He
   could face deportation, either to his native Eritrea or Sudan, his
   lawyer, Michele Calantropo, said.

   Calantropo told VOA on Friday that he did not know where his client was
   being taken but was planning an appeal. "I'm looking for my client at
   10 p.m. in my city because I don't know where the police are bringing
   my client," Calantropo said shortly after the verdict was made public.
   "My client isn't Sudanese, and with Eritrea, we have no agreement for
   it. I mean it's impossible [to deport him there]," he added.

   'Until the last hour'

   Medhane's sister traveled from Norway to support her brother. Speaking
   earlier in the day, she said she hoped his ordeal would come to an end,
   but was prepared for anything. "We weren't sure what the verdict would
   be, and we didn't know what to expect from the Italian system," Hiwet
   Tesfamarian Berhe told VOA, speaking in Tigrigna. She said she only
   wanted to "to hug and kiss" her brother, who she has always known to be
   innocent.

References

   1. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-migrants-court/italy-court-says-eritrean-in-migrant-case-was-victim-of-mistaken-identity-idUSKCN1U71PD

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