After years with little to no criminal penalties, judges and provincial tribunals increasingly review police work and convict those accused of steering migrant boats that travel from neighboring Algeria to the shores of Alicante, aiding networks involved in illegal immigration.
Such is the case of the young defendant appearing this Tuesday in Alicante’s Second Section Court, facing a request for eight years in prison for a crime against foreign citizens and another count of negligent homicide. The latter concerns the death of one of eight men aboard the dinghy who, in a moment of despair after at least twelve days adrift without food or water, jumped into the sea twice, eventually losing his life.
Although the defendant denies steering the boat, testimony from witnesses in a pretrial hearing, presented in the courtroom by two other occupants of the cayuco, undermines his claim of being just another immigrant who paid about thirty million Algerian dinars (roughly 1,300 euros) for the voyage.
Such declarations are critical in establishing the defendant’s role as the vessel’s operator, a responsibility that is often difficult to prove in perilous journeys where lives hang in the balance. A member of the III Group from UCRIF of the Alicante Police Station, who took part in this operation and later testified before the court, explained this challenge.
Two boxes of dates and a five-liter water bottle
The cayuco was located by Salvamento Marítimo on October 16, 2023, about 35 miles off the province’s coast, nearly thirteen days after it departed Entaya, in Algeria, bound for Spain. Protected witnesses described that the boat’s engine failed shortly after departure and that the eight men aboard, including the man accused of piloting the vessel, carried a box of dates and a five-liter water bottle that ran out immediately as the journey began.
With the crew lacking any certificate or training that would verify knowledge of vessel operation, safety equipment, and prevention measures, the prosecutor stated, one of the occupants even lost his temper and jumped into the sea.
Both the defendant and the two witnesses agreed that several migrants rescued him after that first plunge, only for him to throw himself back into the water hours later, this time not surviving. The body was recovered from the waters with the group deciding it would be most practical to cast the corpse into the sea before it deformed on board the cayuco. The prosecutor argues that the defendant bears responsibility not only for failing to immobilize the man after the initial jump but also for contributing to the extreme circumstances that led to that reaction.
The defendant’s defense, who has remained in preventive detention since October, described him as a fellow victim and sought his acquittal.