Prosecutor Demands up to 20 Years Imprisonment in Dover Immigrants Trial

A Dutch prosecutor on Thursday demanded sentences of up to 20 imprisonment for nine people accused of organising last year's fatal smuggling of 60 Chinese illegal migrants to Britain.

In a two-hour closing argument, Prosecutor Johan Klunder described the gang as "cynical and without a conscience".

The deaths of the 58 Chinese in the back of a sealed truck in June 2000 was the result of their "money hungry" illegal immigrant smuggling operation, he said.

For the alleged leader of the gang, Gursel Ozcan, the prosecution asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years for manslaughter and belonging to a criminal organisation engaged in trafficking of immigrants.

Klunder also demanded Ozcan, 36, be fined 200,000 guilders (90,700 euros, 81,970 dollars).

The Turkish-born defendant, clad in a dark grey suit, did not show any emotion as Klunder accused him of taking advantage of "the desperation of others".

For Haci Demir, accused of being Ozcan's bodyguard, the prosecution asked for 18 years imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 guilders. "He doesn't have a conscience and worked only for personal gain," said Klunder.

In June 2000 British customs officials discovered the 60 illegal Chinese immigrants in the back of truck driven by Dutchman Perry Wacker. All but two of the Chinese had suffocated to death.

Klunder said truck driver Lammert Nijveen, who testified he drove several earlier transports of illegal immigrants to England and helped his friend Perry Wacker with the preparations for the Dover transport, "showed no respect for human dignity".

For him the prosecution demand a sentence of 15 years imprisonment.

For six other defendants who helped with the preparations for the transport, Klunder asked for sentences ranging from 6 to 10 years for manslaughter and belonging to a criminal organisation engaged in the trafficking of migrants.

A ninth alleged gang member, Ary van der Spek, is charged with forging documents. Kluder demanded a six month sentence.

The prosecution stressed the different roles of all defendants in the case from alleged ringleader Ozcan to Van der Spek, the man who let the truck for the transport be registerd in his name.

Klunder outlined the way the Chinese left the safehouse in Rotterdam and were loaded onto the refrigirated truck hidden behind a shipment of tomatoes.

"The only goal was to bring the cargo from A to B without being caught," said the prosecutor. "I call the smuggled immigrants cargo because they were treated as such and were transported in a manner that is forbidden even for animals," he added.

An English court earlier this month sentenced Perry Wacker, who drove the ill-fated truck to Dover, to 14 years imprisonment.

(China Daily 04/27/2001)