A Syrian smuggler responsible for a deadly accident was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison in Germany for causing the deaths of seven migrants he was transporting in his overloaded minibus.
In October 2023, Samer AO, then aged 24, transported 22 Turkish and Syrian migrants from Austria to Germany in a vehicle designed for nine people. In addition to the seven passengers who died, the accident left 15 injured, one of whom is still in a coma due to irreversible brain damage.
The court in Traunstein, a small town in Bavaria (southeast) located near the Austrian border, notably judged this man responsible for migrant smuggling leading to death and negligent homicide.
The prosecution qualified the facts as murder and requested life imprisonment.
The driver had wanted to escape a check on the highway around fifty kilometers from the border between Austria and Germany, while he was heading towards Munich, the Bavarian capital.
The escape, measured at 180 km/h, ended a little further on with a violent exit from the road. The accident left seven people dead, including a six-year-old child.
The driver, born in Syria, survived the accident with minor injuries, according to local media Bayerischer Rundfunk.
The same court is currently trying three men suspected of having acted as scouts for the driver in order to avoid checks.
This accident occurred at a time when the fight against irregular immigration returned to the forefront of political concerns in Germany. A few days earlier, Germany had strengthened border controls on its eastern flank.
In the country whose reception capacity for migrants is running out, the Scholz government is under pressure after a series of violent crimes and extremist attacks, which fueled the rise of the far-right Alternative party. for Germany (AfD).
A series of measures aimed at toughening immigration policy have been announced in recent weeks.
