Melilla drama: elevated sentences on attraction for migrants

Moroccan justice has elevated on attraction the jail sentences of eight migrants who took half in a murderous try to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the finish of June, we realized from their lawyer on Tuesday.

“The Nador Courtroom of Enchantment on Monday night toughened the sentences of three migrants to 4 years in jail and three years in jail for 5 others,” defence lawyer Mbarek Bouirig informed AFP. Seven different defendants from the identical group had their sentences upheld at two and a half years in jail, the lawyer stated.

These 15 migrants had been sentenced, amongst different issues, for “unlawful entry” into Morocco, “disobedience” and “harm to public property”, in keeping with Me Bouirig. That is the most recent group to be tried on attraction amongst dozens of irregular migrants prosecuted following the tragedy in Melilla.

The vast majority of them noticed their sentences elevated on attraction to a few years in jail. “We hoped that justice would take into accounts their situation as asylum seekers in an effort to decrease these sentences,” deplores their defence.

Almost 2,000 migrants, principally Sudanese, had tried on June 24 to enter by power into the Spanish autonomous metropolis of Melilla, situated in northern Morocco.

This try killed 23 migrants, in keeping with the Moroccan authorities, 27 in keeping with the Moroccan Affiliation for Human Rights (AMDH).

That is the deadliest toll ever recorded through the many makes an attempt by sub-Saharan migrants to enter Melilla and the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which represent the European Union’s solely land borders with the African continent.