A Dutch court found seven men guilty yesterday of involvement in the deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants as they were being smuggled into Britain last year, and handed down sentences of up to nine years.
The convictions were on charges including being accessories to manslaughter, human smuggling and membership of a criminal organisation. Two other men were acquitted.
"No punishment can make good the deaths of so many victims and alleviate the suffering of their relatives," the presiding judge, Mr Jos Silvis, told the Rotterdam court.
"Smugglers abuse the desperate situation these people are in and abuse these people's dependence on them," he added
Alleged gang leaders Gursel Ozcan and Haci Demir, both Turkish born, each got sentences of nine years. Together with Dutchman Lammert Nijveen - who was sentenced to seven years - they were also found guilty of human trafficking in December 1999 and June 2000. A British court last month jailed a Dutch truck driver Perry Wacker for 14 years for the manslaughter of the immigrants, found suffocated in the back of his truck last June. The immigrants had paid smugglers to help them escape from China for a new life in Britain. Two members of the 60-strong Chinese group survived.
Public prosecutors had accused eight of the defendants of manslaughter and asked for jail terms of up to 20 years. The court ruled the men did not intend the deaths of the immigrants and imposed lighter sentences. The judge deemed five of the eight accessories to manslaughter as they could have foreseen the consequences. "Although there was no intention to kill the 58 Chinese, the defendant is guilty of placing 60 people in a small container with no supplies. Such a transport should be seen as inhuman," Mr Silvis said, reading the verdict on Ozcan.
Two accused were convicted of human smuggling and belonging to a criminal organisation. Demir's lawyer, Mr Jan Boone, said he would appeal against the verdict, because he wanted a ruling from a higher court on whether the police had advance knowledge of the transport and should have intervened.
"I still believe [the authorities] let the transport pass through," he said.
Judge Silvis ruled it was unlikely the police knew in advance of the scheme or that they had tipped off British authorities it was taking place.