Prosecutors in the Netherlands are seeking a 20-year prison sentence for an Eritrean trafficking suspect
42-year-old Emanuel Walid, known as Tewel de Goitem, is accused of running a migration route to Europe via Libya along with his organization
They say his group detained thousands of African migrants in warehouses in Libya and brutally tortured them to extort ransoms from their families
Witnesses say victims were detained in horrific conditions and subject to constant beatings and sexual violence, with numerous people said to have died
At the district court in Zwolle, Goetem, who was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022
only spoke to tell the judges they have the wrong man and to invoke his right to remain silent
The trial is the largest human trafficking case ever in the Netherlands