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CRIME

French court convicts Vietnamese lorry tragedy suspects

A French court on Friday handed down jail sentences of up to 10 years in a people smuggling trial over the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated container on the way to Britain.

French court convicts Vietnamese lorry tragedy suspects
Lorries line up in a traffic jam on the 'Rocade' road alongside the ''Jungle'' migrant camp in Calais. Photo: DENIS CHARLET/AFP.

The bodies of the migrants who suffocated to death — two of whom were just 15 years old — were discovered inside the sealed unit at a port near London in October 2019.

They had travelled in the lorry from northern France to Belgium before crossing the Channel to Britain.

Two ringleaders of the operation — one Romanian and one British — were convicted at a trial in 2021 in Britain and sentenced to 27 and 20 years in prison respectively.

Other suspects, notably the drivers, received 12 to 20 years, while a Belgian court handed a 15-year term to a Vietnamese man for heading the local cell of the network.

Of the 19 defendants in the French trial — who include Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Algerian and Moroccan nationals — 18 were found guilty. Four of them, all Vietnamese, were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to nine or 10 years in prison.

Four other Vietnamese nationals, two of whom were absent and considered fugitive, were sentenced to between one and 10 years for their role in transporting and housing the migrants.

The others, drivers or owners of apartments working with the gang, were sentenced to suspended jail terms.

One defendant, a driver, was cleared of all charges.

According to phone intercepts, the group referred to the migrants as “goods” or “chickens”. In the aftermath of the tragedy, harrowing accounts emerged from the
victims, who had recorded messages to their families from inside the sealed lorry.

In one message, 26-year-old Pham Thi Tra My wrote to her parents: “Mom, dad, I love you very much. I am dying, I can no longer breathe.”

Another man left a recording, saying: “I want to come back to my family. Have a good life.

Some of the defendants had claimed that they were pressured into working with the gang, but the court said that their main motivation was money.

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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