Man put on trial as alleged migrant smuggling kingpin is actually innocent refugee, court rules

Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre freed after global campaign insists mistaken identity behind arrest

Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre reacts to the verdict inside the court in Palermo, Italy (Reuters)

An Eritrean man accused of being the ruthless leader of an international people-smuggling ring has been freed after a court in Italy ruled he was the victim of mistaken identity.

Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre was set free on Friday after the court agreed the Italian authorities, aided by Britain’s National Crime Agency, had secured the arrest of the wrong man.

In 2016, Mr Behre was arrested and extradited from Sudan to Italy, accused of being Medhanie Yehdego Mered.

Mr Mered is a notorious Eritrean human trafficking kingpin known as “The General” and accused of making a fortune by smuggling thousands of desperate migrants into Europe in dangerous unseaworthy boats.

But from the moment he was arrested Mr Behre insisted his innocence and said he was in fact an impoverished refugee himself.

His campaign quickly gained international recognition and a 26,000-signature petition called for him for to be cleared.

During the trial, Mr Behre’s lawyer, Michele Calantropo, presented expert analysis of a recording of the real Mr Mered’s voice, which was not the same as his client’s.

Mr Behre’s sister, who lives in Norway, also testified to his true identity, and some of Mr Mered’s victims told the court the man in the dock was not “The General”.

The refugee was, however, convicted of a lesser offence of abetting people smuggling and sentenced to five years in jail.

Because he has already served three years, he is likely to be immediately released.

“The court has accepted our position. He is not ‘The General’,” Mr Calantropo told reporters outside the Sicilian court.

His client “cried for joy” when he heard the court’s decision, the lawyer added.

He also said Mr Behre would be applying for asylum in Italy and did not want to return to Sudan where he had been living in a refugee camp.

Outside the court, supporters of the Eritrean, many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with Mr Behre’s picture and the slogan “Free our innocent brother”, danced for joy when the verdict was handed down.

At the time of Mr Behre’s arrest Italy was grappling with a surge of migrants making the perilous sea crossing from North Africa.

Some 360,000 had arrived in Italy in two years and hundreds were drowning when their boats sank during the risky journey.

The extradition had been hailed as a major blow against the networks of human traffickers who were channelling hundreds of thousands of people into the dangerous Mediterranean route into Europe.