The General Prosecutor’s Office of Debrecen proposed a more severe classification and a heavier sentence against a member of a criminal organization dealing with human trafficking. On one shipment, he crowded 31 migrants into a closed-load, airless van who might even have drowned.
The Hajdú-Bihar County Attorney General’s Office prosecuted 2 Hungarian and 1 Romanian citizen for the crime of qualified human trafficking committed in a criminal organization and the attempted murder of several people.
The Debrecen General Court sentenced the Hungarian man to 8 years in prison, the Romanian defendant to 3 years in prison, and his female partner as a criminal assistant to 2 years – suspended for a probation period of 4 years. The foreign citizen was expelled from the territory of Hungary for 5 years, and the court also ordered the confiscation of property.
According to the verdict, in the summer of 2019, the accused were involved in the smuggling of migrants in the south-eastern border area of Hungary. The Hungarian man first transported 8 and a few days later 31 people of Afghan and Indian nationality who could not prove their legal stay in Hungary. For the first time, the woman, as a “forerunner,” ensured the avoidance of police action, at the signal of the accused drove on a dirt road and fled, leaving the migrants behind.
In the second case, the man transported the foreigners in a closed, airless van on the highway without providing continuous ventilation of the vehicle and for at least 3 hours without stopping for about 300 km. The journey, which almost led to death, was blocked by a police accident.
The Romanian citizen transported 19 people in his car near the Romanian border crossing in the early hours of August 2019, but the police patrol also successfully acted against him.
The court arrested two traffickers immediately after his arrest.
Defendants acting as members of a criminal organization could expect a fare of € 100-200 per migrant.
The court found the guilt of one of the defendants in an attempt to commit life-threatening bodily harm to 31 persons, instead of attempting to commit a homicide classified as an indictment.
Defendants and their counsel appealed partly for mitigation, for different legal classifications, and partly for acquittal. The prosecutor’s office found his attempt to murder several people and proposed a significant increase in the sentence of this accused and his assistant.
According to the Debrecen General Prosecutor’s Office, the man driving the car not only endangered the lives of the oxygen-deficient, transported victims in a confined space but also had a realistic possibility of drowning death, which is identical to the attempt to commit homicide. A driving disqualification penalty is also warranted because you used a motor vehicle to commit the offenses. The “forerunner” accused also acted as a member of a criminal organization, as he had an obvious knowledge that migrants from Asia could only get to Hungary with the help of organized criminals.
Based on the appeals filed against the final judgment, the Debrecen Judgment Board decides.
ugyeszseg.hu
