CAIRO: A Fayoum court sentenced 18 men to up to five years imprisonment Tuesday for their roles in an ill-fated attempt to smuggle illegal Egyptian immigrants into Italy by boat, in which 21 people drowned. One man named Zakaria Hussein Mohamed, who organized the crossing, was sentenced to five years in jail and given a LE 5,000 fine for manslaughter. The owner of one of the boats, Metwalli Ali Mohamed, was given the same sentence, along with his two sons who were sentenced for accessory to manslaughter and organizing trips without a license. Four of the crew members were sentenced to three years in jail and fined LE 5,000 each for accessory to manslaughter, while another group of four were given sentences of between three and five years each. Six more members were also sentenced in absentia to between three to five years. Twelve of the migrants are known to have drowned off the coast of Siracusa in Sicily and nine drowned off the province of Calabria between Oct. 27 and 28, though it has been claimed that up to 140 might have died in all. Thousands of immigrants from all over Africa die each year trying to cross into Europe by sea, often using makeshift boats or paying smugglers large sums of money to take them.
