An Italian court has sentenced to life imprisonment a sadistic people smuggler who raped, tortured and murdered migrants trying to reach Europe from North Africa.
Osman Matammud, 22, from Somalia, was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, abduction for ransom and sexual violence against young women and girls.
He was sentenced after a five-hour deliberation by the Court of Assizes in Milan.
Matammud was arrested a year ago after being recognised by fellow Somalis in a migrant reception centre in Milan.
He was almost lynched before police stepped in and arrested him.
He had crossed the Mediterranean in a boat full of migrants and had tried to pass himself off as an asylum-seeker.
He was accused of the horrific abuse of migrants at a squalid detention camp at Bani Walid in the Libyan desert, 100 miles south-east of Tripoli, with prosecutors comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
During his trial in Milan, 17 witnesses told the court how they had been raped, beaten or tortured by Matammud. He will spend the first three years of his incarceration in solitary confinement.
