Tewelde Goitom
Tewelde Goitom, or Walid or Welid, (born c. 1984)[1] is an Eritrean human trafficker and smuggler.[2][3]
Between 2014 and 2018, he was "at the heart of a particularly brutal and lucrative trade in desperate migrants trying to reach Europe"[4] and boasted that he moved "15,000 people across the sea to Europe in 2015 alone".[2]
He was arrested in March 2020,[5] tried and in 2021 found guilty and sentencted to 18 years in prison in Ethiopia.[6] Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos predicted that he would be able to bribe his guards and escape like ringleader Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who had escaped detention in mid-February 2021.[7]
In 2022, Ethiopia extradited Tewelde Goitom to the Netherlands and on January 10, 2023, he appeared at a pretrial hearing in the Dutch town of Zwolle, where he claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity. The prosecution wanted to join his case with that of Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who had been arrested again January 1, 2023 in Khartoum, Sudan.[8][9]
Goitom's trial began on 3 November 2025.[10] On 27 January 2026, the Overijssel District Court handed down the maximum sentence of 20 years' jail due to both the nature and scale of the crimes; victims mentioned "a litany of abuses, including torture, starvation, and sexual violence, painting a chilling picture of daily life within these detention sites".[11]
See also
References
- ^ Quell, Molly. "Dutch court opens trial of accused Eritrean human trafficker". www.courthousenews.com. Archived from the original on 2024-06-13. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
- ^ a b "How Did One of North Africa's Biggest Human Traffickers Escape Prison?". Vice.com. Archived from the original on 2024-08-12. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ "Así se fugó Kidane, uno de los traficantes de personas más crueles de África". Todonoticia.cl (in Spanish). 2021-03-01. Archived from the original on 2021-05-08. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ "Migrations. "Walid", l'un des pires trafiquants d'êtres humains en Afrique, condamné en Éthiopie". Courrier international (in French). 2021-05-07. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ Hayden, Sally. "People trafficking: 'They were killers. They have raped many women'". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
- ^ Hayden, Sally. "Notorious human trafficker extradited to Netherlands from Ethiopia". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2025-11-06. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
- ^ Girma, Kaleab; Hayden, Sally (30 April 2021). "'Cruel' trafficker accused of torturing refugees found guilty in Ethiopia". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ "Alleged Eritrean People Smuggler Appears in Dutch Court". US News. 2023-01-10. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ "'One of the world's cruelest migrant smugglers' arrested in Sudan". 2023-01-24. Archived from the original on 2024-03-17. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
- ^ "Dutch Court Opens Trial of Eritrean Man Accused of Running Brutal Migrant Smuggling Network". ANN. 3 November 2025. Retrieved 18 August 2026.
- ^ "Eritrean Migrant Smuggler Receives Maximum 20-Year Sentence from Dutch Court". ChronicleAI. 27 January 2026. Archived from the original on 15 February 2026. Retrieved 18 August 2026.