A Syrian national on the charge of people smuggling has been detained by the order of a Budapest court.
Budapest’s deputy chief prosecutor, Pál Fürcht said the 37-year-old man is suspected of acting as a leader of an international human smuggling ring and is being held in custody for a month. The man had earlier been granted asylum in Hungary and was living in Budapest.
Police officers from Győr-Moson-Sopron county, in western Hungary, stopped a car late at night on motorway M1 on September 3, 2018. The car, driven by a Hungarian national, was on its way to Vienna carrying an Iranian, an Iraqi and two Syrian refugees.
According to MTI, the ring was allegedly involved in smuggling nationals of third countries to the EU across the Hungarian-Serbian border and arranging their travel to Austria.
Fürcht said a Palestinian national thought to be a member of the ring has already been taken into custody. Another two suspected members of the ring are Hungarian nationals, one of whom is already under criminal supervision.
Photo credit: Origo