The fate of an alleged people trafficking kingpin who insists he is a victim of mistaken identity hung in the balance Friday, with a verdict expected in a trial against him in Italy.
Eritrean national Medhanie Yehdego Mered is accused of being "the General" of one of the world's largest migrant trafficking networks, with branches in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Europe.
But the man on trial in Sicily, who was arrested in Sudan in 2016 and extradited to Italy, insists he is carpenter Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe.
Despite differences in appearance between the two men, and DNA evidence supporting Berhe's case, Italian prosecutors have stuck to their guns throughout and have called for a 14-year jail sentence.
It is not the life sentence one might expect for an alleged people smuggling mastermind with blood on his hands, and is proof the prosecutors know they have the wrong man, the defendant's lawyer says.
"They should just have said 'we made a mistake'," lawyer Michele Calantropo told AFP on Thursday.
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His client, wearing jeans and a green top, spoke quietly with his interpreter as the hearing began inside a massive bunker in Palermo, built in the 1980s for the maxi-trial against the mafia.
The verdict is expected later Friday.
Italy, Sudan and Britain at the time hailed the defendant's capture as the stellar result of a joint operation which had dealt a significant blow to the people smuggling business.
Mered ended up on an international wanted list after being identified as the man who organised the packing of migrants onto a boat that sank off Italy in October 2013, killing at least 360 people in one of the worst such disasters in the Mediterranean.
The "cynical and unscrupulous" Mered had been "continuously and constantly reaping vast profits while showing a contempt for human life," according to a joint statement by Sudan, Italy and Britain announcing his arrest on May 24, 2016.
But the images broadcast by Italian police of a thin young man with frizzy hair, looking frail as he walked off the plane in handcuffs, sparked confusion and disbelief within the Eritrean diaspora around the world.
Those who had had dealings with Mered said it was not him. Berhe's family recognised him instantly.
According to American, Italian and Swedish investigative journalists, Mered spent part of 2016 in prison in Dubai for using a false passport and now lives in Uganda.
DNA evidence also suggested the wrong man was behind bars: tests on Behre's mother showed the defendant was her son.
Further tests, on Mered's three-year-old son, who lives in Sweden, showed the defendant was not his father.
A New Yorker investigative reporter was told by "the General" himself in 2017 that the Italians had the wrong man.
Calantropo insists that the man behind bars has only one thing in common with the trafficker: his first name, Medhanie.
"They have nothing on him, he did nothing," Calantropo said.
"If he is convicted, I'll do everything possible to defend the truth. Not just at the appeal court and supreme court, but at the European Court of Human Rights as well," he added.
"This is one of the biggest injustices on the face of the earth."