The regional court in Landshut, Bavaria, has sentenced two men for people smuggling, handing down a prison term to the main defendant and a suspended sentence to his accomplice.

The primary defendant was sentenced to four years and seven months in prison, a court spokesperson announced on Wednesday (January 21). The co-defendant received a suspended sentence of one year and eight months.

In its ruling, issued around two weeks ago, the court found that both men had joined a people smuggling network in 2024 and were primarily responsible for coordinating the smuggling operations. Migrants were brought into Germany via Austria. No further information was provided about the smugglers or their operations.

The main defendant had originally been charged with eight counts of smuggling migrants for profit, but was convicted on four counts. The co-defendant, who had faced seven charges, was found guilty in two cases.

The verdict, however, fell short of the prosecution’s demands. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of five years and ten months for the main defendant and four years and ten months for the co-defendant. The defense, by contrast, had requested a sentence of two and a half years' imprisonment for the main defendant and a two-year suspended sentence for the co-defendant.

Iraqi national convicted of smuggling migrants and taking person hostage

The Landshut ruling follows a recent migrant smuggling case heard over a week ago at the regional court in Traunstein, also in Bavaria. In that case, a 48-year-old Iraqi national living in Pforzheim was convicted of smuggling migrants from abroad and of taking at least one person hostage, according to the local daily Traunsteiner Tagblatt.

Prosecutors said the man had been part of a smuggling network operating between August and November 2023 that worked with accomplices in Hungary and Slovakia, which transported mainly Syrian migrants through Hungary, Slovakia and Austria into Germany and other Western European countries.

Another smuggler who threatened migrants with knife sentenced to four years

In another separate case, the Traunstein court also sentenced a 26-year-old man to four years in prison for migrant smuggling, a court spokesperson said on January 16. He was convicted on two counts, one of which involved life-threatening treatment, according to the spokesperson. The court said the defendant also acted as part of a smuggling gang.

According to the verdict, the man followed instructions from other gang members to transport migrants from Slovenia to Germany, dropping them off near the German-Austrian border. He was convicted over two smuggling trips carried out in October 2024, during which he brought a total of nine people into Germany.

In one of the cases, three children were transported sitting on their parents' laps without seat belts. The court also heard that in Nußdorf the defendant took out a knife to force the migrants out of the vehicle. Judges said he was aware that transporting the children without proper safety measures posed a life-threatening risk.

With AFP