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Europe migrant crisis: Doubt cast on identity of 'smuggler' extradited to Italy
Earlier LBN thread: People-smuggling 'kingpin' Mered Medhanie extradited to Italy
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Source: BBC
[font size=1]Left: An image of the man believed to be Mered Medhanie previously released by the UK National Crime Agency; Right: the man extradited to Italy[/font]
Europe migrant crisis: Doubt cast on identity of 'smuggler' extradited to Italy
9 June 2016 Europe
Italian prosecutors are investigating whether the wrong man was extradited to Italy this week in a high-profile operation against people-smuggling.
A man thought to be suspected Eritrean people smuggler Mered Medhanie, 35, was seized in Sudan last month.
Two women said to be sisters of another Eritrean man, Medhanie Tesfarmariam Berhe, 27, say he was arrested instead.
One of them told the BBC of her shock at suddenly seeing photos of her missing brother in custody in Italy.
Italy announced the extradition on Wednesday, releasing video of a man in handcuffs being escorted off a plane.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
9 June 2016 Europe
Italian prosecutors are investigating whether the wrong man was extradited to Italy this week in a high-profile operation against people-smuggling.
A man thought to be suspected Eritrean people smuggler Mered Medhanie, 35, was seized in Sudan last month.
Two women said to be sisters of another Eritrean man, Medhanie Tesfarmariam Berhe, 27, say he was arrested instead.
One of them told the BBC of her shock at suddenly seeing photos of her missing brother in custody in Italy.
Italy announced the extradition on Wednesday, releasing video of a man in handcuffs being escorted off a plane.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36488655
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Source: The Guardian
Police investigating if wrong man caught in anti-smuggling operation
Man sent to Italy is refugee Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe, not
smuggler Medhanie Yehdego Mered, detainee’s friends say
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and Patrick Kingsley
Thursday 9 June 2016 08.29 BST
Italian and British police are urgently investigating whether they caught the wrong person in a much-hyped anti-smuggling operation said to have netted one of the world’s most-wanted people smugglers.
Investigators in both countries announced with great fanfare on Wednesday morning that they had seized Medhanie Yehdego Mered, a 35-year-old Eritrean whom an Italian prosecutor called “the boss of one of the most important criminal groups operating in central Africa and Libya”.
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which was involved in the investigation, hailed the capture of “one of the world’s most-wanted people smugglers”, following his extradition on Wednesday to Italy from Sudan, where he had been arrested.
But just hours later both Italy and Britain were looking into whether the Sudanese had sent them the wrong man, after three close friends of the detainee alleged to the Guardian that he was the victim of mistaken identity.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Man sent to Italy is refugee Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe, not
smuggler Medhanie Yehdego Mered, detainee’s friends say
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and Patrick Kingsley
Thursday 9 June 2016 08.29 BST
Italian and British police are urgently investigating whether they caught the wrong person in a much-hyped anti-smuggling operation said to have netted one of the world’s most-wanted people smugglers.
Investigators in both countries announced with great fanfare on Wednesday morning that they had seized Medhanie Yehdego Mered, a 35-year-old Eritrean whom an Italian prosecutor called “the boss of one of the most important criminal groups operating in central Africa and Libya”.
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which was involved in the investigation, hailed the capture of “one of the world’s most-wanted people smugglers”, following his extradition on Wednesday to Italy from Sudan, where he had been arrested.
But just hours later both Italy and Britain were looking into whether the Sudanese had sent them the wrong man, after three close friends of the detainee alleged to the Guardian that he was the victim of mistaken identity.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/08/police-investigating-if-wrong-man-caught-in-anti-smuggling-operation
