7 Sentenced in 58 Migrants’ Deaths
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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — In a case that dramatized Europe’s illegal immigration crisis, a Dutch court convicted seven men Friday in the deaths of 58 Chinese migrants who suffocated in a truck container while seeking a better life in Britain.
The seven were given prison terms of up to nine years each--less than half the punishment demanded by prosecutors. They were acquitted of manslaughter by the three-judge panel, which ruled that the defendants never intended to kill the migrants.
Two men were acquitted of all charges and walked free.
Defense attorneys said they would appeal the convictions.
The bodies of 54 men and four women were discovered June 18 by customs officials in Dover, England. Only two Chinese survived the ferry crossing from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
A British court last month sentenced the truck driver, Dutchman Perry Wacker, to 14 years’ imprisonment.
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