Four members of a smuggling gang involved in the gruesome deaths of 71 migrants have been jailed for 25 years in Hungary.

The ruling followed a year-long trial which took over proceedings from Vienna after it emerged that the migrants had suffocated on Hungarian soil.

The incident, where a truck was abandoned on an Austrian highway in 2015, prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open her country's borders.

Gang ringleader Samsoor Lahoo is sentenced over the grisly deaths of 71 migrants

The migrants were found in an abandoned truck on an Austrian highway in August 2015

Prosecutors had sought life terms without parole for the four men involved in the deaths of 59 men, eight women and four children, including a baby girl.

The bodies, from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were in an advanced state of decomposition when they were discovered in an abandoned poultry refrigerator lorry.

Investigations showed they had been dead for two days, suffocating shortly after being picked up in Hungary, then a key transit country on the Balkan migrant trail.

Ringleader Samsoor Lahoo and the other mostly Bulgarian suspects denied knowing that the migrants were dying in the back of the truck.

Afghan national Lahoo allegedly told drivers to let the migrants die and dump their bodies

But evidence presented to the court indicated they had been aware of what was happening.

'The defendants were well aware these vehicles were not suited for human passengers,' Judge Janos Jadi said.

'This is torture under the law even if the passengers were not beaten by the smugglers.'

Lahoo, a young Afghan aged 31 who had fled his troubled homeland, told the court in a final statement that he 'had not wanted anyone's death'.

But police intercepts of phone calls revealed he had ordered the truck drivers not to open the doors.

'Let them die instead. That's an order,' Lahoo allegedly says in one of the calls.

'If they die, let him dump them in a forest in Germany.'

Burly guards in balaclavas and bullet-proof vests stood as the verdicts were read out

Hungary built a fence to try to control the influx of migrants coming through the Balkans

Challenged with this evidence, Lahoo told the court they were simply 'thoughtless remarks'.

Hungary's legislation regarding trafficking was tightened in the aftermath of the deaths.

The men were accused of trafficking more than 1,100 — charging up to 1,500 euros (now around £1,300) a head — into western Europe at the height of the continent's 2015 migrant crisis.

The victims were among hundreds of thousands of desperate people fleeing war and misery in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The deaths led a shocked Angela Merkel to announce she would open Germany's doors.

Her policy eventually allowed in more than one million refugees, mostly from Syria.

The men's verdicts come at a time when migration is once again under the spotlight, with Merkel facing a rebellion from hardliners in her coalition over refugees.

The fate of the Aquarius ship, which was left stranded for two days in the Mediterranean with 629 rescued migrants after Italy refused to allow it to dock, has also sparked a war of words among European allies.

Prosecutors immediately appealed the sentences arguing that they were too lenient.

Prosecutor Gabor Schmidt said Lahoo showed only 'endless greed' and 'frightening indifference' to the migrants desperate to get to Europe.

'The ruling does not sufficiently reflect the seriousness of the crime,' he told the court.

Ten other suspects were also found guilty and handed prison sentences of up to 12 years in the packed courtroom in Kecskemet yesterday. Three were tried in absentia.