The District Court of Berettyóújfalu held a preparatory hearing on November 8, 2021, in the case of four defendants who, while playing cards, decided to smuggle migrants to Western Europe for good money.
The prosecution indicated in the indictment that before the indictment – the new concluded agreements with the accused on the admission of guilt and asked the court to approve them at the preparatory hearing.
In view of the fact that the defendants testified in accordance with the facts set out in the agreement, the Berettyóújfalu District Court approved the agreement and, in accordance with its contents, the three Romanian and Hungarian citizens were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison and banned from practicing public affairs for 3 years. Defendants may be placed on parole at the earliest on the day following the completion of two-thirds of the custodial sentence.
According to the verdict, the first, third, and fourth defendants lived in Oradea and had known each other for a long time. Their common passion was poker, which often brought them together. In connection with the game, they got acquainted with the second defendant, who is a Hungarian citizen. In the autumn of 2017, human trafficking in the vicinity of Oradea, which took on serious proportions at the time, was a frequent topic of conversation among men who collapsed due to card games. The four defendants everywhere only heard how much money could be made with it and the risk of falling short was low. In October 2017, the defendants met an unknown, presumably Arab man in a café in Oradea who offered them money in exchange for transporting undocumented migrants to Germany.
The four men were in constant contact with this unknown Arab man, receiving detailed instructions from him, such as when and where to take in migrants, how to smuggle them across the Hungarian-Romanian border, and where to go within Germany. to transport them. The money was always received from the client in the same café in Oradea after the deliveries.
The first shipment took place on 6 October 2017, followed by a further 10 transports until 28 November 2017. During the last delivery, scheduled for November 30, 2017, the defendants did everything as before. Four vehicles were used, the driver, 12 of the fourth-degree defendant, and 7 of the second-named defendants, who identified themselves as Iraqi nationals, were destined for their destination in Passau, Germany. The four men did not count one, on the side of the main road No. 42 leading to Püspökladány, they were stopped and taken into action by the police, during which the accused and the 19 migrants they transported were produced.
Between 6 October and 28 November 2017, the four defendants occasionally assisted at least 8 third-country nationals with no more than the documents required to stay in the Schengen area in Romanian-Hungarian, Hungarian-Slovak, Slovak-Austrian and to cross the Austrian German border in breach of legal provisions.
The court’s decision was noted by the prosecution, while the defendants and their defense counsel appealed for parole. The case continues at the Debrecen General Court.
debrecenitorvenyszek.birosag.hu
Picture: illustration.
