Trześcianka. He was transporting migrants and he overturned. Two people died. There will be an appeal process

The accident occurred in May last year near the towns of Soce and Trześcianki, on provincial road No. 685 from Hajnówka to Zabłudów. The car went off the road and rolled over. One of the passengers died on the spot.

The driver of the Toyota RAV4 and nine other people were taken to hospitals. A day after the accident, a second person, another passenger, died.

The driver from Uzbekistan (living and working in Poland) was accused of unintentionally causing a land traffic disaster and of helping a group of ten Afghans illegally cross the border.

According to investigators, when escaping from the pursuit of Border Guard officers, the driver was not careful, did not adjust his speed to the road conditions, was carrying too many people and lost control of the car on a bend. Then he drove off the left side of the road, fell into a roadside ditch and hit an embankment. The car rolled for over 40 meters and came to rest on its roof.

The information provided by the Border Guard after the accident showed that a Toyota with a large number of passengers was noticed on the road by an officer who was passing by during his off-duty time. Suspecting that it was the so-called the courier started tracking the car. He was joined by other officers in an unmarked car.

During the trial in the first instance, it turned out that he was the then commander of the Podlasie Border Guard Unit, who was returning from an inspection of the border outpost in Białowieża.

The prosecutor's office wanted the 35-year-old Uzbek to be sentenced to five and a half years in prison. In June, the District Court in Białystok illegally sentenced him to three and a half years in prison. He also imposed a three-year driving ban.

During the trial, the accused presented a version that he did not know that he was transporting migrants who had crossed the border illegally, and that once he had picked them up, they forced them to run away while trying to stop them on the road. The court found that this was only a line of defense. He assumed that the driver knew perfectly well what he was participating in, knew how much he would earn and that it was not an ordinary taxi ride.

SEE ALSO: He was transporting migrants in a van and drove off the road while escaping. At least seven people are dead

In the same trial, two other citizens of Uzbekistan were also accused of aiding and abetting the illegal crossing of the border from Belarus to Poland.

The penalties in their case are one year and four months and one year in prison. The court also ordered them to forfeit the financial benefits they obtained for this crime – a total of PLN 8.5 thousand. zloty.

After the announcement of the non-final judgment, legal trainee Sara Grabowska stated in front of the TVN24 camera that in her opinion it was grossly harsh.

– The sentence should include the penalty of pre-trial detention. In my opinion, this is a sufficient punishment – due to his age and the fact that he has shown with his attitude that he is sorry – she noted.

The 35-year-old's defense attorney wants a possibly mild sentence for causing the accident (to which the man pleaded guilty) and an acquittal on the charge of aiding and abetting illegal border crossing. The defenders of the other two Uzbeks also want to be acquitted (or possibly as lightly as possible) on the latter charge.

The prosecutor's office appealed against the verdict because it wanted harsher penalties for all three. The case will be dealt with by the Court of Appeal in Białystok. As follows from the so-called electronic docket, the hearing date was set for mid-February next year.