A court in the Netherlands on Tuesday sentenced an Eritrean man to the maximum 20 years in prison after convicting him of leading a people-smuggling and extortion network that subjected migrants to what judges described as cruel and degrading abuse.

The Overijssel District Court found Tewelde Goitom, also known as Amanuel Walid, guilty of running a criminal organization that transported migrants from Libya across the Mediterranean toward Europe and extorted large sums of money from their families, including relatives living in the Netherlands.

Judges dismissed Goitom’s claim that he had been mistaken for another person, rejecting arguments from the defense that witnesses had wrongly identified him as a key figure in the smuggling network.

Presiding Judge René Melaard said the case was “exceptionally serious,” citing both the scale of the crimes and the suffering inflicted on vulnerable migrants.

“On the one hand, because of the gross undermining of Dutch and European immigration policy, but on the other, and especially, because of the particularly cruel, violent and degrading treatment to which you and your accomplices subjected the migrants,” Melaard said.

“You, along with your accomplices, were merciless, unscrupulous, and devoid of regard for human dignity in your treatment” of migrants, he added, saying the abuse was carried out “apparently solely to extort as much money as possible from vulnerable and helpless people seeking a better future.”

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Goitom, 42, was also ordered to pay more than 30,000 euros, about $35,000, in compensation to victims. He has two weeks to file an appeal.

According to the court, migrants were held in camps in Libya, where they were abused and forced to contact family members who were pressured to send money to secure their relatives’ passage to Europe. Only after payments were made were migrants allowed to leave the camps and continue their journeys.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office welcomed the ruling in a post on X, noting that it had shared evidence in the case as part of a joint investigation into crimes against migrants in Libya. The ICC is conducting an ongoing probe into alleged crimes committed there.

At the start of the trial in November, Goitom told judges he was the victim of mistaken identity. He was extradited to the Netherlands in 2022 from Ethiopia, where he had previously been convicted of similar offenses.

Proceedings against Goitom were delayed due to the extradition of another suspect, Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam, who fled during a trial in Ethiopia in 2020. Often described as one of the world’s most wanted human traffickers, Habtemariam was extradited from the United Arab Emirates to the Netherlands in late December and is expected to face trial at a later date.

Habtemariam had been convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment in Ethiopia after escaping from custody while on trial for people-smuggling charges.

Dutch prosecutors say both men can be tried in the Netherlands because parts of their alleged criminal activities took place there, including the extortion of money from relatives of migrants living in the country.

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Goitom’s defense lawyers disputed that claim. “There is no clear connection to the Netherlands,” lawyer Simcha Plas argued, saying payments were made in Eritrea or through the UAE and that Dutch courts lacked jurisdiction.

The judges rejected that argument, convicting Goitom on multiple counts of complicity in people smuggling and extortion. He was acquitted in relation to two migrants after the court found the evidence insufficient.