Hungarian court orders arrests of 4 in relation to dead migrants' truck

A court in Kecskemet, Hungary, 85 km southeast of Budapest, approved on Saturday to formally arrest the four men already in detention for a role in the deaths of 71 refugees found in a truck abandoned on motorway A4, near Vienna, according to Hungarian News Agency MTI.

The arrests will be in place for 30 days, said Ferenc Bicskei, president of the Kecskemet Court.

The three Bulgarian suspects are 29, 30 and 50 respectively, while the Afghan is 28 years old. They were caught near the Serbian border on Thursday.

The court's spokesman Szabolcs Sarkozi said that human trafficking is punishable by 2-8 years' imprisonment, but if it is an organized crime, 2 to 16 years' imprisonment may be imposed by the court.

Earlier in the day, the Bacs-Kiskun County prosecutor Gabor Schmidt issued a statement saying that the four men had played roles in the transport from Hungary to Austria of the people found dead in a truck with Hungarian plates.

Schmidt said that based on information obtained to date, the people smugglers had picked up the refugees, who illegally crossed the Serbian-Hungarian border into Hungary, in the city of Kecskemet and had transported them to Austria. The four men were apprehended on Thursday.

The prosecution had called for the four to remain in custody since. The prosecution is treating the four as participants in an organized crime.