Four handed life sentences for the deaths of 71 migrants

A Szeged court on Thursday handed down life imprisonment sentences to four defendants involved in the deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated in a refrigerated lorry which passed through Hungary and was discovered in Austria in 2015. The primary defendant, an Afghan citizen, and two Bulgarians were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole while another Bulgarian citizen must spend at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole. All of them were convicted of murder, complicity to murder and involvement in a people smuggling ring. Ten other defendants have been handed jail terms of between 4 and 8 years without the possibility of parole. The court has increased the sentence of 25 years in prison handed down to the Afghan and the three Bulgarian citizens by a Kecskemet court last year. The verdicts are final.