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Suspects in Austria refugee deaths to appear in court

Coffins with bodies of migrants who died in an abandoned lorry are unloaded from a van on August 28, 2015 for an investigation at a forensics institute in Vienna. (© AFP)

Four people arrested following the recent grisly discovery of the decomposing bodies of over 70 refugees in an abandoned truck in Austria are set to go on trial, officials say.

According to Hungarian police, the four detainees, three Bulgarians and an Afghan, who include the owner of the vehicle and two drivers, are to appear in court in Hungary later on Saturday.

The truck was found in Austria’s eastern city of Eisenstadt near the border with Hungary Thursday, with Austrian police officials saying the victims were most likely Syrian refugees fleeing the deadly crisis in their homeland.

A forensic investigator is working on a refrigerated truck parked along a highway in Austria near the border with Hungary on August 27, 2015. (© AFP)

“Among these 71 people, there were 59 men, eight women and four children including a young girl one or two years old and three boys aged eight, nine or 10,” police spokesman Hans Peter Doskozil said at a news conference on Friday.

The court is to decide whether the four suspects can be held beyond an initial period of 72 hours. Austria’s Public Prosecutor Johann Fuchs has said he would likely seek to have the suspects extradited.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have left the Middle East and Africa for Europe this year, but 2,500 have died in the attempt, the majority during dangerous voyages across the Mediterranean in rickety boats.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Friday for governments to step up their response, saying he had been “horrified and heartbroken” at the recent deaths.


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