The 21 members of three Roma clans were sentenced on Wednesday in Nancy to terms ranging from one to 10 years in prison, sometimes with arrest warrants, for forcing their children to steal or for selling women as wives .
The Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) sentenced several defendants for acts of theft or aiding and abetting theft, as well as two couples for “
trafficking in human beings
”.
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Two defendants received sentences of 10 years in prison, accompanied by definitive bans from French territory.
JIRS also ordered the confiscation of three buildings, two in France and one in Croatia.
Only one of the defendants was present in the room reading the proceedings of a trial held in November.
He was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
JIRS also issued fourteen arrest warrants against absent defendants.
"
The penalties are up to the charges and the breach of public order
," said Coralie Coenen, deputy prosecutor of the JIRS.
According to Me Liliane Glock, lawyer for the four defendants, the prosecution accused certain defendants of acts of "
trafficking in human beings
" with "
the sale of their wives
", whose "
price was fixed according to their qualities of thief
" .
The debates also focused on thefts committed in 2012 and 2013 all over France, especially in Alsace and the South, but also in Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.
According to Mr. Glock, one of the defendants would have died in Italy where he resided, but he was however sentenced to twelve months in prison on Wednesday.
According to Ms. Coenen "
the Italian authorities have not been able to confirm this death as
it is" and it is presumed because it is based only "
on the statements of certain defendants
" and on the "
photograph of an act of death which was not in his name
”.
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