4 accomplices sentenced to British truck tragedy
Xinhua News Agency, London, January 22 (Reporter Zhang Dailei) The Central Criminal Court in London, UK, issued a verdict on the 22nd and sentenced four accomplices in the truck massacre in Essex, England to imprisonment ranging from 13 years, 4 months to 27 years.
On October 23, 2019, the British police found 39 bodies in a container truck in an industrial park in Essex, southeast England, and confirmed that the victims were all Vietnamese citizens.
According to the judgment of the Central Criminal Court of London, the four people involved in the tragedy belonged to the same criminal group of human smuggling.
Among them, 41-year-old Irish freight company owner Ronan Hughes was responsible for providing transportation, 39 counts of manslaughter, and sentenced to 20 years in prison; 43-year-old truck repairman Georgi Nika from Romania was responsible for recruiting drivers. Convicted on 39 counts of manslaughter and smuggling, and sentenced to 27 years in prison; 24-year-old truck driver Eamon Harrison from Northern Ireland, UK, was responsible for the transportation of the container in the European continent and was sentenced to 18 years in prison; also from Northern Ireland The 26-year-old truck driver Maurice Robinson was responsible for the transshipment of containers after entering the UK. He has previously pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison.
The judge of the Central Criminal Court Nigel Sweeney said that Hughes and Nika are the masterminds of this criminal group of human smuggling, which has long used the English Channel to smuggle illegal immigrants for huge profits.
He said that the police suspected that the gang’s biggest mastermind was a Vietnamese living in London, who has not yet been brought to justice.