Off the wire
• Grenade blast injures 4 in Burundi's capital  • Indian stocks close lower  • Roundup: Nikkei plunges 2.51 pct. following surge, market eyes Fed's rate hike  • Chinese, Mongolian police hold joint anti-terror drill  • Weather information for Asia-Pacific cities  • India summons Saudi envoy in Nepalese maids' rape case  • Belgian charity distributes "survival packs" to New York homeless women  • China still verifying report on kidnapping of citizen: FM spokesman  • China's indigenous SatNav finds increasing market presence  • China Exclusive: Blockbusting demand for traditionally-printed Tibetan sutras  
You are here: 　 Home

Sierra Leone diamond trafficking suspect extradited to Belgium

Xinhua, September 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Belgian-American man accused of enslavement and diamond trafficking during the Sierra Leone civil war has been extradited from Spain to Belgium, local media reported on Thursday.

According to Belgian newspaper group Sudpresse, 64-year-old Michel Desaedeleer has now arrived in Belgium where he is under arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He was arrested at Malaga airport on Aug. 28 as he prepared to board a flight for the United States.

Sudpresse reports that five former Sierra Leone diamond mine slaves filed police complaints in January 2011 against Desaedeleer, who has both Belgian and U.S. citizenship.

They allege that he exploited diamond mines in the Kono district of Sierra Leone between 1999 and 2001 and shipped the gems to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, where they were sold to Antwerp, the north Belgian city famous for the global trade in diamonds.

A European arrest warrant was issued for him by the Belgian authorities in early 2015, the Sudpresse report added. Enditem