Human smuggler gets 12 years in prison after suffocation of 39 Vietnamese in cooling container: « With his last forces, a victim mentioned his name » (inland)
Gang leader VO Van Hong (left) had previously been imprisoned for ten years. – © Aft/AFP
Almost six years after the suffocation of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a cooling container, a headpiece of a human -smuggling twelve years of effective imprisonment has been sentenced. N. van Kim (34) is the right hand of gang leader VO van Hong, who was previously tried. It was a video that one of the victims made shortly before his death, which led to the identification of Van Kim.
On October 23, 2019, the bodies of no fewer than 39 Vietnamese refugees were found in the southern English county of Essex, two children among them. The victims were killed in a refrigerator that had left the day before in the north of France and had shipped to the south of England via Zeebrugge.
Research showed that the victims were killed by suffocation during the last part of their journey from a safe house above a pizzeria in Anderlecht.
« The scenes were downright shocking »
Ann Lukowiak
Federal attorney
A total of 23 suspects, mainly Vietnamese, were referred to the Bruges criminal court for, among other things, bend formation and human smuggling with the death of the 39 victims as aggravating circumstances.
According to federal attorney Ann Lukowiak, the gang was responsible for at least 130 transports. Their victims described them as ‘chickens’.
The Bruges correctional court sentenced gang leader VO van Hong in January 2022 to fifteen years of effective imprisonment. In appeal, that punishment was reduced to ten years in prison. His henchmen received effective prison for up to four years. Some taxi drivers and landlords of Safehouses were acquitted. In the British Liege of the file, the pivotal figures in January 2021 already received 20 and 27 years in prison for manslaughter.
Vietnamese N. van Kim (34), the right hand of VO van Hong and Baas van a Safehouse in Anderlecht, could never be arranged. The federal public prosecutor decided to try him in absentia for the Bruges correctional court.
Death struggle
Federal Attorney Ann Lukowiak asked twelve years in prison at the beginning of March, 616,000 euros fine. She referred to the videos that the victims made just before their death. « The scenes were downright shocking, » she said. « In full death struggle, a victim mentioned the name of the defendant, while people weeped, coughed and knocked on the wall of the truck in the background. »
N. van Kim was found guilty of the smuggling of at least 77 migrants on Wednesday, spread over 56 transports. He was sentenced to the advanced prison sentence and fine and was also put out of his civil rights for ten years. The federal attorney had requested a forfeiture of more than one and a half million euros, but that claim was rejected. After all, according to the court it cannot be determined how much Kim earned from the smuggling.
Because the man is still on the run, the court ordered his immediate arrest.
