MADRID (AP) — Two people smugglers have been sentenced to nine years each in prison for the deaths of four Moroccan migrants who drowned after they were forced to jump out of a boat last year near the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, prosecutors said Thursday.
The prosecutor’s office in Ceuta said the sentences were decided on without trial after a plea deal was reached with the two men.
The office said the pair — one from Ceuta and a Moroccan resident — picked up nine young men in a recreational boat in Morocco in January 2023 with the intention of getting them to Spanish territory illegally.
As winds grew stronger on approaching the port city of Ceuta, the smugglers forced the migrants to jump into the water and swim to shore. Five of them managed to do so but the others drowned. Their bodies were found days later.
The two people smugglers were each charged with four counts of negligent homicide and an offence against the rights of foreign nationals. Prior to the plea deal reached Wednesday, the prosecution had sought 32-year prison sentences. The two were ordered to pay 205,000 euros ($218,000) in compensation to each of the victims’ families, prosecutors said.
Zion Williamson is ruled OUT of the Pelicans' NBA play
China's Maternal, Infant Mortality Rates Continue to Drop
Crackdown Targets Women, Child Trafficking
China's Puyuan Ramps up Efforts to Develop Knitwear Industry
Simon Cowell is lining up a new Britain's Got Talent kids' spin
S. Korea's opposition party overwhelmingly leads exit polls in parliamentary elections
Wondrous Xinjiang: Project Renovating Old Residences Revitalizes Ancient City
Sydney attack victims include a mother who saved her baby, a Chinese grad student and an architect
Germany arrests 2 for allegedly spying for Russia, plotting sabotage to undermine Ukraine aid
China's Puyuan Ramps up Efforts to Develop Knitwear Industry