France jails imam over Channel migrant crossings Published duration 3 June 2019 Related Topics Calais migrant crisis

image copyright AFP image caption There has been a recent rise in the number of migrants attempting to reach Britain from across the English Channel

A French court has sentenced an imam to two years in prison for helping migrants try to cross the English Channel in inflatable boats.

The 39-year-old Iranian national was accused of arranging several crossings from northern France to England.

A 29-year-old Senegalese man who attended the mosque where the imam preaches also stood trial.

He was given nine months in jail and was banned from visiting Nord and Pas-de-Calais for three years.

The imam, who has not been named in French media, fainted upon hearing his sentence.

The men admitted providing six or seven dinghies after they were arrested in April, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.

The investigation started in late March when life jackets, wet pullovers and a rubber dinghy were discovered on a beach in northern France.

According to the prosecution, the imam was in contact with organised gangs of traffickers and took a commission on the sale of each boat.

Police found two boats, three outboard engines and life jackets in the imam's house. The two men confessed to buying seven boats between December 2018 and April 2019.

The imam claimed he visited a shop in Deulemont, on the border with Belgium, to purchase dinghies for a person he identified only as Kamal.

media caption Thousands of migrants are still losing their lives trying to reach Europe by boat

Both defendants claimed they only realised later that the boats were being used for illegal Channel crossings.

"When I learnt that, I thought of the children on board and I told myself there could have been deaths," the Senegalese man told the court. The imam said he was "ashamed".

Prosecutors said their explanations "did not reflect reality" and that the Iranian national was often in the areas where the boats were discovered.