2 people smugglers sentenced to 9 years each in Spain for drowning deaths of migrants

MADRID (AP) — Two people smugglers have been sentenced to nine years each in prison for the deaths of four Moroccan migrants who drowned after they were forced to jump out of a boat last year near the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, prosecutors said Thursday.

The prosecutor’s office in Ceuta said the sentences were decided on without trial after a plea deal was reached with the two men.

The office said the pair — one from Ceuta and a Moroccan resident — picked up nine young men in a recreational boat in Morocco in January 2023 with the intention of getting them to Spanish territory illegally.

As winds grew stronger on approaching the port city of Ceuta, the smugglers forced the migrants to jump into the water and swim to shore. Five of them managed to do so but the others drowned. Their bodies were found days later.

The two people smugglers were each charged with four counts of negligent homicide and an offence against the rights of foreign nationals. Prior to the plea deal reached Wednesday, the prosecution had sought 32-year prison sentences. The two were ordered to pay 205,000 euros ($218,000) in compensation to each of the victims’ families, prosecutors said.