Migrant crisis: Hungary convicts first 'illegal entrant' By Nick Thorpe

BBC News, Szeged, Hungary Published duration 16 September 2015 Related Topics Europe migrant crisis

image copyright Reuters

The first migrants have been prosecuted for illegal border crossing at the county court in Szeged, Hungary.

It comes after Hungary closed its border with Serbia and began enforcing restrictions on those caught trying to enter the country illegally.

All other criminal cases have been suspended to make way for cases against asylum seekers.

Illegal crossing of the border fence and damaging or hindering its construction are now criminal offences.

Ahmed Suadi Talib, an Iraqi student in his early 20s, was one of the defendants - led into court in handcuffs by a policeman wearing plastic gloves and a hygienic face mask.

He and his brother, who was also caught, could have been jailed for three years. In fact, the court reportedly ordered him to be expelled from Hungary and prohibited from returning within one year.

The defendant broke into tears as he described how three of his brothers had been killed in Iraq.

'We didn't know'

He said he had fled Syria, where he studied at the Mamoun Science and Technology University of Aleppo, in order to escape Islamic State.

Speaking through a translator, he apologised for breaking Hungarian law, and said he did not know it was a criminal offence to cross Hungary's border.

"We didn't know about this law. If we had, we would not have entered there. We respect the laws of countries," he said.

There was a hole, and he and his brother went through it.

image copyright AFP image caption Many migrants at the border with Hungary now find themselves shut out from Europe's passport-free Schengen zone

According to the testimony of the police sergeant who arrested him, he was caught as one of a larger group of mainly Syrian citizens arrested on the Hungarian side after coming through the fence at dawn on Tuesday.

His case was the first of several taking place simultaneously in the Szeged County Court.

The defendant said that he and his brother were given money by their parents for the journey and were hoping to reach the Netherlands.