PALERMO, Italy: Italy has arrested a Somali for kidnapping, extortion and rape against desperate Eritrean migrants in a case that shines a light into the brutal criminal gangs trafficking people into Europe from Africa, police said yesterday.
The case is based on testimony from the survivors of a shipwreck that killed more than 360 migrants off the coast of Sicily in October.
Elmi Mouhamud Muhidin, 24, was one of the leaders of an armed gang of about 50 Somali and Sudanese men who kidnapped 130 Eritrean migrants, including children, who they found walking through the Sahara desert between Sudan and Libya in July, an arrest warrant said.
The Eritreans were taken to Sabha, Libya, where they were held in a single room for two weeks and tortured, the women raped, and forced to pay $3,300 each for their freedom and transport to the capital Tripoli, where they were handed to other smugglers, survivors said.
Muhidin was attacked and nearly lynched by his victims in the immigrant centre on Lampedusa when he arrived there on October 25 after making the boat crossing from Libya himself, setting into motion the police investigation, the warrant said.
If convicted, Muhidin faces a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. He was flown to Palermo on Thursday from the southern island of Lampedusa.
Reuters
