http://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/2016/06/10/195222292/jeg-er-sjokkert.-min-bror-er-uskyldig
Sister of suspected human trafficker living in Oslo:
- I am shocked. My brother is innocent
35-year-old who was extradited from Sudan to Italy, which police believe is great smuggler "General", could prove to be the wrong man. In Oslo sits a distraught sister: - My brother is innocent, says Hiweet Berhe Tesfamariam Kidane.
Gunnar R. Larsen
10.06.2016 kl. 2:53 p.m.
Wednesday came news that Medhanie Yehdego Mered from Eritrea was handed over to Italian police. He is known as one of the most powerful people smugglers in north Africa and must have earned huge sums on trafficking.
Now it turns out that the police may have arrested the wrong man.
- I am shocked. He has done nothing, said the sister of the arrested Hiweet Berhe Tesfamariam Kidane, AP news agency and BBC .
She says that her brother until now has lived a "normal" life as a refugee in Sudan.
Now he is arrested for human trafficking and suspected of being involved in a shipwreck in which 359 people were killed in 2013.
Then videotape of brother
Wednesday she saw her brother in the video as the Italian authorities announced he had been flown from Khartoum to Rome.
According to witnesses the arrested be an Eritrean man who resembles the 35-year-old.
- About 400 people have written to me. They tell: "I know him."
"He grew up with me." "This is the wrong person." Says the
Eritrean human rights activist and journalist Meron Estéfano to Al Jazeera.
She was one of those who raised the alarm after the publication of the sensational disclosure.
Estefano, who lives in Stockholm, the former having interviewed the arrested, which she believes is Medhane Tesfamariam Kidane - a 27 year old Eritrean refugee who stayed in Sudan.
- These are two completely different people. The arrested are younger and shorter but has the same first name as the suspect, says Meron Estefano. She should have been in contact with friends and relatives of the arrested, all of which confirm the identity.
- I've interviewed several of the refugees who have been smuggled into Europe, and everyone says that this is not the man who has been arrested. I hope the police will release this innocent man as soon as possible, she tells Al Jazeera.
Admitted to having smuggled 13,000
She also interviewed the real Mered.
- He admitted to having smuggled 13,000 people. I've never seen any human smuggler become as big as him so fast, says Meron Estefano.
Medhanie Yehdego Mered should have stated that he operated as an intermediary under the protection of Libyan and Sudanese authorities. The further the logistics of transporting people across Mediterranean sea and through deserts others shall be taken care of.
According to the Italian judge Francesco Lo Voi now investigating the police the identity of the arrested man. He is scheduled to be questioned Friday.
- All we can say is that the identification, arrest and extradition to Italy came after an official request from British intelligence and Sudanese authorities, said Francesco Lo Voi.
According to a spokesman for the National Crime Agency (NCA) in London is too early to comment on the new information. The lawyers who will defend the arrested have so far not commented on the matter.
Expert:
The Guardian has also been in contact with friends of the detained Eritreans, confirming that the man not the police think he is. They claim the arrests are Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe, whose surname was Kidane during childhood.
- That is unbelievable. He is not a human act. He's from my family. He lived in my father's house and left Eritrea in 2014 and traveled to Khartoum where he lived with my brothers and sisters. He had no job, so we sent him money, says Fshaye
Tasfai, an Eritrean refugee in Sicily, to The Guardian.
According to BBC got Sudanese police help of British and Italian authorities before they arrested the man who is now in an Italian prison.
The British newspaper also talked to Reitano, an expert on transnational organized crime. He doubts that the real Mered was as central to human smuggling police want it.
- It is unlikely that he played such a strategic role in a Libyan network. I have always believed that his function may have been exaggerated by Italian police, said Reitano.
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http://pipr.startsiden.no/abcn/resized/972x/drp//2016/06/10/195222330/1/stor/2820934.jpg
My brother is innocent. He has done nothing, said Hiweet Berhe Tesfamariam Kidane, who lives in Oslo.
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Software translation
Received on Fri Jun 10 2016 - 15:01:05 EDT
