The deaths in August 2015 of 59 men, eight women and four children from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan shocked Europe as it was struggling to cope with an influx of more than one million refugees and migrants that year.
It was the worst incident of its kind on the overland route across the Balkans and into central Europe taken by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. "The suffering in that truck is beyond imagination, as is the utmost indifference the perpetrators showed toward the deaths of these 71 people. Therefore for those who played a core part, there is no doubt that the only punishment commensurate with their crime is the maximum one, which is life in jail without parole," presiding Judge Erik Mezolaki said.
One of the four defendants received a minimum 30 years in prison - legally a life term in Hungary - but with the possibility of parole afterwards. The Afghan ringleader of the gang and three Bulgarian accomplices were found guilty of manslaughter for refusing to stop the refrigerated truck to open the doors and let air in, despite the frantic pleas of those inside.