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Italy frees man wrongly extradited for people smuggling
Source: CNN
Italy frees man wrongly extradited for people smuggling
12 July 2019
An Italian court has ruled that an Eritrean man extradited to the country for people smuggling was the victim of mistaken identity.
Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre was mistaken for the alleged trafficking kingpin Mered Medhanie - known as The General.
He has spent the past three years in prison insisting he was not who prosecutors said he was.
On Friday the court admitted its error, although it gave Behre a five-year sentence for aiding people smuggling.
He was however allowed to walk free because of the time he had already spent behind bars.
-snip-
12 July 2019
An Italian court has ruled that an Eritrean man extradited to the country for people smuggling was the victim of mistaken identity.
Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre was mistaken for the alleged trafficking kingpin Mered Medhanie - known as The General.
He has spent the past three years in prison insisting he was not who prosecutors said he was.
On Friday the court admitted its error, although it gave Behre a five-year sentence for aiding people smuggling.
He was however allowed to walk free because of the time he had already spent behind bars.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48962202
Left: An image of the man believed to be Mered Medhanie previously released by the UK National Crime Agency; Right: Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre, who was extradited to Italy (NCA/Polizia di Stato)