After the smuggling accident with seven deaths on the Bavarian Autobahn 94, the suspected driver was taken into custody. The 24-year-old is accused of, among other things, seven counts of murder, fifteen counts of attempted murder and smuggling in foreigners resulting in death, as the police announced on Saturday evening.
The stateless man living in Austria is said to have been traveling in a van with 23 people on Friday morning, it was said. He fled from an attempted check by the federal police at 180 kilometers per hour. The car, designed for a maximum of nine people, had an accident at the Ampfing/Waldkraiburg motorway exit (Mühldorf district).
All occupants were injured. Seven of them died, including a six-year-old child. The 24-year-old was also injured. The passengers came from Syria and Turkey.
At the request of the Traunstein public prosecutor’s office, the suspected smuggler was brought before an investigating judge on Saturday. According to the information, he issued the arrest warrant. “We continue to take very tough action against the smugglers and their backers. We want to protect human lives and stop criminals,” emphasized the head of the public prosecutor’s office, Wolfgang Beckstein. The investigation in this case is also about clarifying the background and identifying and arresting those behind it.
Beckstein went on to say that in recent months the Traunstein public prosecutor’s office has been obtaining several arrest warrants for smuggling offenses almost every day. “Unfortunately, we now have cases almost every day in which 15-20 people are smuggled in unsecured in small vans,” said the public prosecutor.
On Saturday, for example, two suspected smugglers were taken into custody in Bavaria. They were sitting in one of two vehicles that, according to the federal police, had evaded control on the B307 at significantly excessive speeds. Both drivers raced back to Austria, it was said. Previously, one of the fully occupied rental cars at the Sylvensteinsee Dam was driven towards a federal police officer. He saved himself by taking a step to the side.
One of the vehicles finally came to a stop at a roadblock in Austria. All five inmates escaped, but the Syrians were later caught and arrested, the Tyrol police said. The second vehicle was stopped at the Hochfelln rest area, the federal police said. Only the driver and passenger were left in the car. The two native Syrians with Swedish passports were arrested and on Saturday a judge ordered them into custody.
Press release on the fatal smuggling trip from the Austrian police
