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16 September 2019Dda from Palermo ordered the arrest in Messina of three people accused of kidnapping, human trafficking and torture. Dozens of refugees would be held in a Libyan prison camp ready to leave for Italy. The migrants said they were tortured, beaten and saw fellow prisoners die.
The three managed a prison camp on the behalf of a criminal organization in Zawyia, Libya, where the refugees ready to leave for Italy were held in custody and released only after a ransom was paid. Those arrested are accused in various ways of criminal association aimed at trafficking in persons, sexual violence, torture, murder and kidnapping for the purpose of extortion. At the time of detention they were in the Messina hot-spot. These are Mohammed Condè, known as Suarez, a native of Guinea, 27, Hameda Ahmed, Egyptian, 26 and Mahmoud Ashuia, Egyptian, 24 years old.
The victims, who arrived in Lampedusa on 7 July after being rescued by the Mediterranea ship, recognized the three jailers with mug shots shown to them by the police, who, after each landing, showed the refugees the images of migrants arriving in Italy on journeys previous ones looking for jailers or smugglers. Those arrested had arrived in Italy a few months before the victims. Condè had the task of capturing, holding the refugees and asking family members for ransom. Only after payment the victims could continue their journey. It was Condè who gave the refugees a cell phone to call home and ask for money. Ahmed and Ashuia would be the other two jailers: the victims also reported having been tortured and beaten by both. The investigation was coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, the addition Marzia Sabella and the prosecutor Gery Ferrara. The detention was carried out by the Messina mobile squad.