Trial in Salzburg

Two smuggling trips and two prison sentences

The actual destination of both smuggling trips: Germany

(Bild: Neumayr Franz/www.neumayr.cc)

Two defendants, two smuggling trips, but the same criminal gang in the background: an Algerian and a Romanian wanted to bring refugees across the border for money. Both have now been sentenced to two years and two and a half years' imprisonment respectively, not legally binding.

The two defendants actually have nothing to do with each other, but: "The people behind the criminal organization are the same in both cases," emphasized the public prosecutor at the trial on Tuesday in the regional court.

The trafficking business only works with advance drivers and an organization. This is what makes the whole thing lucrative.

Richterin bei der Urteilsbegründung

Both are accused of smuggling and both are part of a criminal organization. The Romanian (27) was an active helper in a smuggling operation on November 10: he kept in touch by phone while a fellow countryman drove off with ten Syrians in a police van. Romanian authorities had been listening in - so the officers were able to track the man down and arrest him in August. He confessed, as did the second accused Algerian (47).

Smuggling as "a kind of travel agency"
The latter was a trafficker himself when he was stranded in a wooded area in Mühlbach am Hochkönig on January 20 - 13 refugees were in the vehicle with him. Both defendants also cite the same motive: lack of money. The Algerian explained that he had been told that it was "only a family" to be towed: "I was also lied to, I was played with." He knew that he had made mistakes. And he knows that they were illegal entries. "They made me an offer and I accepted it."

The prosecutor had described the trafficking business as "a kind of travel agency": There would be "different stages" for the traffickers, it was all organized. The judge also emphasized this when handing down the non-final sentences: The Romanian received two years in prison, the Algerian two and a half - the latter will serve his sentence in Germany.