Of the 19 defendants, 18 were convicted by French justice for their participation in a vast illegal immigration operation which cost the lives of 39 people in October 2019.
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“ You were involved at the forefront of organizing crossings for people in precarious situations in the hope of a better life. (…) You created the conditions that led to the deaths of these people. If there had been fewer of them, perhaps they would have survived », Declared the president of the court Carole Bochter to the attention of the four defendants with the highest convictions.
Of the 19 accused, they were sentenced to nine to ten years’ imprisonment, accompanied by permanent ban from the national territory, for involuntary homicide. The court held almost all of the charges requested by the public prosecutorwithout being able to identify a manager of the illegal immigration network In France.
The court sentenced the four other Vietnamese defendants – including two absent from the trial and considered to be on the run – responsible for organizing the transport and accommodation of the migrants, to sentences of one to ten years in prison. All the other defendants were acquitted for criminal association but were convicted of aiding illegal residence committed by an organized gang.
A ” sledgehammer »
The sentences handed down against seven taxi drivers of French, Algerian or Moroccan nationality range from six months’ suspended prison sentence to three years’ imprisonment, two of which are suspended, accompanied by fines of 2,000 to 3,000 euros.
For the lawyer of one of those sentenced to 10 years in prison, this sentence is a real “ sledgehammer “. “ We therefore consider that hosts have the same responsibility as a smuggler », Declared to AFP Me Gaspard Lindon.
As a reminder, the facts date from October 22, 2019. That day, 31 men and eight women, aged 15 to 44 and all from Vietnam, got into a trailer in the north of France. They were later discovered dead of asphyxiation and hyperthermia after a night of travel on October 23, 2019, in the Grays industrial estate, east of London.
Read alsoHuman trafficking: the case of the Vietnamese network