A Paris court on Wednesday found six men from Iraq and Afghanistan guilty of manslaughter over the drowning of 31 migrants on an overcrowded dinghy five years ago in the English Channel.
Seven other men, including a Pakistani national, were found guilty of lesser smuggling charges, including facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised gang and criminal conspiracy.
Two, who had cut ties with smugglers before their arrest, were granted the authorisation to serve their sentence at home with electronic tags.
Lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, who represented one of the victims' family members, told The National he was “satisfied” with the court's efforts at determining the involvement and responsibility of each defendant in the largest single drowning incident in the Channel.
“If you traffic in human distress and vulnerability, if you deliberately take the risk of endangering people's lives by putting them in a makeshift boat, you cannot – the next day or the day after – claim that no one is responsible,” Mr Daoud said. “That was the position of most of the defendants.”
The court sentenced several of the defendants to pay €9,000 ($10,200) compensation to his client and her two children. Their father, who was from Ethiopia, drowned the night the dinghy capsized in November 2021.
The victims were mainly Iraqi Kurds, but also included Afghans, Ethiopians, an Egyptian, a Somali national, an Iranian Kurd and a Vietnamese national. Twenty-seven victims were recovered, while at least four others were never found. The only survivors were two men.
“No prison sentence will bring back a husband or a father, but at least the court is saying that this death is not anonymous and has not been forgotten. Those responsible must be held accountable,” Mr Daoud said.
The trial demonstrated that Iraqi and Afghan smuggling networks worked together in the north of France to send migrants to the UK. In a press statement, the court said the disaster resulted in “multiple material and human failures” and had been “brought about by individuals driven by the lure of profit and a disregard for human life”.
The makeshift boat “was wholly unsuited for such a voyage, given that the equipment provided was rudimentary and the engine ultimately failed”, it said.
The prosecutor said smuggling operations require significant resources, with costs kept at a minimum to maximise profits. Starting in 2021, dinghies became increasingly overloaded, with fatalities increasingly resulting from trampling or drowning inside them rather than drowning at sea.
Describing smugglers as operating in “micro-networks”, he said it was “futile” to search for a “structured, hierarchical organisation”.
Prison sentences
Sentences for the six men found guilty of manslaughter ranged from six to 10 years in prison. For others, sentences ranged from six months suspended to four years in prison. One man was found not guilty.
The heaviest sentence, of 10 years in prison, was handed to an Afghan national on the run, Obaidullah Maroofkhel, 29. An arrest warrant was issued against him.
Harem Ahmad Abwbaker, 36, born in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Ranya, was escorted in handcuffs after he was sentenced to eight years in prison. The court found that he was particularly close to the head of the Iraqi smuggling network, which is headed by a man known as “Bashdar” and whose real name is Hajar Mina Abdullah. Ranya is known as an international smuggling hotspot.
“In determining this sentence, the court took into account a cynical defence consisting of presenting yourself as a mere migrant,” the president of the court said. “That was far removed from the reality of your involvement in this organisation.”
“Bashdar” was arrested in Iraq on October 18, 2022, over his involvement in the Channel disaster, and has been detained in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is expected to stand trial soon. The prosecutor described him as “the cornerstone of this case”.
France did not request his extradition because his name appears in a continuing investigation into a separate aspect of the Channel disaster investigation. France co-operates with Iraq on a limited basis because it retains the death penalty.
Lawyer Souleyman Rakrouki said his client, Safi Mujahidullah, 36, had decided not to attend the verdict despite being present for most of the trial. Mr Rakrouki said his client had been shocked by the sentence of nine years requested last week by the public prosecutor. Mujahidullah, an Afghan national, received a six-year sentence.
“He acted as an intermediary between people looking to cross and the smugglers in his circle. However, he never actually carried out the smuggling himself. He never earned a single euro for making these connections,” Mr Rakrouki told The National.
Relatives of some victims described the anguish provoked by the disaster during the trial. Several travelled from Iraqi Kurdistan to Paris to attend the first days of the trial in person.
Zana Mamand Muhammad, whose brother Twana, who was 18 at the time, was never found after the disaster, told the court: “I live with the uncertainty of discovering some information about his disappearance, a body, a grave.”
“I am living with this constant pain,” he said as he wept and held a picture of his brother.
Agencies contributed to this report
