Traffickers in court

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"And you with the red sweater, sit down there!" The court in Eisenstadt was a hive of activity. A total of 19 people had to be present in courtroom 7.(Bild: HS, Krone KREATIV)

A trio of traffickers were arrested at the A3 Hornstein rest stop. At the trial in Eisenstadt, prison sentences were handed down to the "small cogs in the wheel with unscrupulous clients", according to the lawyer.

The fuss alone is remarkable. 19 people, excluding the audience, are in courtroom 7 at Eisenstadt provincial court. 16 of them had to appear there because of a Moldovan (36) who speaks Russian, a Ukrainian (24) who can only communicate in his mother tongue, and another Moldovan (22) whose words are translated by a Romanian interpreter. According to their lawyers, the blameless trio have been "suffering the evil of imprisonment" in Burgenland since October 31, 2024. There are said to be far worse prisons in the world.

150 euros for each prisoner
On that day, the three men had dragged 12 and 9 refugees respectively from Hungary to Austria in two vans driving one behind the other. All three were in need of money, and each of them should have received 150 euros per head of cargo. Actually a trifle, considering that according to an insider, the masterminds were collecting up to 15,000 euros.

Better to drive a forklift than go to war
No money was ever paid. "It was only when the job was done," says the Ukrainian, who is theoretically liable for military service and has been working as a forklift driver in the Czech Republic since the outbreak of the war. And then, in the case of tugboat trials, comes the Amen in prayer: "My mother is ill. The medication is very expensive. I didn't want to get rich. I did everything just for her."

Illegal machinations?
A lawyer describes the defendants as "small cogs in the wheel with unscrupulous clients", the youngest of whom stated to the police that he did not know that it was illegal. Yesterday, he also pleaded guilty: "I have a guilty conscience that I did something like this."

The older Moldovan, who was able to prove two further journeys with 9 illegal immigrants on board each via cell phone data analysis, will serve 30 months in prison. The two "first offenders" get away with 18 months. The sentence is not legally binding.