Today at 8:30 am began the trial of the so-called Parndorf-case in the auditorium of the General Court of Kecskemét. Great number of representatives of the Hungarian and the international media was present.

 

With the collaboration of Bulgarian, Pashto and Arabic interpreters the prosecutor, dr. Schmidt Gábor presented the 26 counts of the 88-page-long indictment, in which only one of the counts deals with the crime resulting the death of 71 immigrants. The prosecutor accused of this crime the first to fourth defendants and motioned to impose the most severe punishment, life imprisonment.

 

According to the indictment, all of the 11 defendants, from which one is a fugitive, were members of an international criminal organization specialised in illegal immigrant smuggling. In the organization all of the defendants had a definite task. As a result, the defendants transported immigrants on a daily basis from Hungary to Western Europe in the time period from June 2015 to August 27, 2015. At the end of August the defendants transported even hundreds of immigrants per day in such a way, that they caused significant physical and mental pain to the illegal immigrants in most cases.

 

The first to fourth defendants accused of the most severe count of indictment were taken into custody by the authorities between August 27 and 29, 2015, after the discovery of the freezer truck left in a lay-by on the Austrian motorway and the 71 victims.

 

Tomorrow the trial will continue with the testimonies of the first and second defendant.

 

Kecskemét, June 21, 2017

 

Press Department of the General Court of Kecskemét