The 47-year-old Nicholas A. from Benin is sentenced to prison for five years. He was charged for human smuggling and trafficking by the Dutch court in Amsterdam.

The man says he is a Roman Catholic priest but on January 24 2009 he tried to travel through Amsterdam airport to Zurich with eleven Africans. The public prosecutor initially demanded six years of imprisonment.

Last year the Dutch Royal Military Police was tipped by security officials of KLM Dutch Royal Airlines. According to the public prosecutor the man has been engaged in human smuggling for a long time. The victims said they had paid a lot of money to travel to Europe. Two of the victims said they were forced through voodoo rituals to work as prostitutes.

The court believes that Nicholas A. was present at these rituals. A. is also thought to have been involved in the preparation of the smuggling. The group who were smuggled into The Netherlands pretended to be a group of tourists.

The court did not consider that remission was needed although official documents of the case were left on a train by one of the judges. The court declared this had not led to violation of the privacy laws since the file had not become public.

source: ANP