Overview
- The criminal court is trying nine adults on charges including involuntary homicide, endangerment, facilitation of illegal entry and criminal conspiracy, with a tenth Sudanese defendant sent to juvenile court.
- Two of the adults are subject to arrest warrants, and the hearing is scheduled to run through 18 November.
- Investigators say the network used flexible clan and family ties, threats and violence, and charged about €1,300 to €1,500 per person for Channel crossings.
- The case centers on a seven‑meter inflatable launched near Calais with about 65 people that suffered an engine failure and structural collapse, leaving six bodies recovered at sea and a seventh later found on a Dutch beach.
- Magistrates note the two Sudanese accused of piloting the boat deny that role and that any piloting must be distinguished from the central roles of the alleged smugglers; recent Lille convictions in a separate 2022 wreck and the still‑untried 2021 disaster frame the legal context.