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By Alessandra Bocchi.
Tunis, 19 January 2017:
A Somali once in charge a migrant camp in Bani Walid, has been arrested in Milan on suspicion of murder, rape, human trafficking and smuggling.
Osman Matammud was detained while living in a Milan migrant camp, said the Italian news agency ANSA. The 22-year old Somali was originally being investigated for smuggling but evidence emerged from two young women that Matammud had allegedly murdered, raped and extorted money from migrants who arrived at his Bani Walid camp.
If the inmates could not find the €7,000 for the test of their passage to Europe, they were subjected to extensive violence including the breaking of bones, electric shocks, burnings, sexual assault and forced labour, the accusers said.
A woman, who said that she had been forced to stay in the camp for a year, told investigators: “He [ Matammud ] came to me and ripped my dress off in front of everyone. When I was naked he tried to penetrate me but couldn’t because I have had female genital mutilation … I fainted from the pain and when I woke up I realised he raped me because I saw blood everywhere. I was raped by him on a regular basis.”
The 41-page file of evidence from Matammud’s alleged victims could not be published in full, said the La Stampa. The investigating magistrate handling the case told the newspaper: “In 40 years of working as a magistrate I never saw anything like this.”
Matammud denies the allegations.
