At the beginning of July this year, the French police found 15 Iraqis in a refrigerated semi-trailer truck driven by Czech driver Jiří Sagan. Without further investigation, the driver was immediately taken into custody under the suspicion of being an accomplice of smugglers. By the end of September, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
“The number of drivers who are victims of an unfair system is gradually rising and we are still counting new drivers who ask for help. Unfortunately, the situation has gone so far that an innocent person is now being prosecuted in France for suspicion of smuggling and other crimes,” Zdechovský wrote in the letter.
He also pointed out that the French court ignored the records of the inspections, the damaged lock on the truck, or the migrants’ own testimony that they had entered the truck illegally on their own without any knowledge of the driver.
