The prosecution claims a sentence of five years in prison for a crime of sedition for each of the 22 passengers who fled at the run from a plane that landed in an emergency at the Palma airport, on the afternoon of November 5, 2021. The Public Ministry considers that the defendants "started a riot" inside the plane and forced their departure by "pushing and shaking" the crew, creating "a dangerous situation" at the airport.
The prosecution believes that these facts can be framed in a crime of sedition, which is currently pending modification in the Penal Code.
For this reason, he raises an alternative request of three years in prison for each one for a crime of coercion in competition with a crime of sedition provided for in the Air Navigation Law.
The letter, presented last week before the Provincial Court, accuses 22 men, together with three others who remain unaccounted for, of following the guidelines published on social networks by the group called Brooklyn to devise a plan to enter Spanish territory. starting from a deception aimed at forcing an emergency landing.
According to the account raised by the prosecution, the 22 men boarded on November 5, 2021 in Casablanca on Air Arabia flight MAC-437 bound for Turkey, "provided exclusively with backpacks."
At approximately 5:18 p.m., when they were flying over Alicante, one of the passengers "pretended to be suffering from a diabetic illness" that forced the plane to finally land at Palma airport, after a person on board "without professional accreditation" stated that the passenger was "in a coma and in an imminently fatal condition."
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A supposed diabetic coma, shoving on board and military deployment: reconstruction of the escape from the Palma plane
After landing, an ambulance from the airport's emergency service evacuated the passenger to the Son Llàtzer hospital accompanied by another of the travelers "who offered to do translation work."
Once at the health center, says the prosecution, he was treated by medical personnel who diagnosed that there was no "objectifiable pathology" while the companion remained unaccounted for "after fleeing."
The prosecution emphasizes that the patient insisted that he was diagnosed with diabetes in 2018, the date from which he was treated with insulin and pills.
However, after analyzing his biochemical and hemoglobin profile, a medical report was issued on December 2 that concluded that the results "are incompatible" with a diagnosis of diabetes.
The prosecution's account indicates that once the defendants managed to land, seeing that there was no police presence near the plane, one of them removed the security cover from one of the emergency doors to delay the resumption of the flight.
"Feigning nervousness and claiming to want to go outside to smoke, the defendants began a group disturbance in the reduced space available on the aircraft, where they began to shout and push towards the door that was open, notwithstanding their obligation to remain sitting inside the plane.
"Chaos Situation"
The letter speaks of a "chaotic situation" in which the defendants began to "shov and shake" the crew, who did not close the door due to the "fear" they felt for their physical integrity.
The prosecution recounts that they pushed the cabin supervisor down the stairs, shook two members of the ground crew and that another crew member dislocated his shoulder in his attempt to prevent escape.
The prosecution describes the events that occurred inside the plane as a "riot."
At the time of the flight of those investigated on the runways, a Eurowings company plane with passengers and crew on board was carrying out the approach maneuver, for which it accuses the travelers of creating "a dangerous situation."
That day, a total of 81 flights were affected and the airspace remained completely closed from 7:40 p.m. to 10:35 p.m., while the Air Arabia company issued a security report to change its action protocols with the aim of reinforcing security. safety and take measures to mitigate risks.
Twelve men were arrested hours later in the vicinity of the airport;
four were arrested ten days later in the north of the island;
another five between the end of November and December 2021 in different locations in Mallorca,
while the last of them was arrested last July in Barcelona.
Three remain unaccounted for.
The prosecution accuses each of them of a crime of sedition and demands five years in prison.
It also considers the 22 men responsible for a crime of minor abuse for which it claims a fine of 360 euros for each one.
In addition, it is prosecuting two other individuals, who were not traveling on the plane and who are residents of the island, for an alleged crime against the rights of foreign citizens for having helped them escape and is demanding eight months in jail.
On December 7, a similar case occurred at the Barcelona airport when 28 passengers took advantage of an emergency landing at the Barcelona airport, carried out after a woman pretended to be in labor, to escape from the plane that was covering a journey between Casablanca (Morocco) and Istanbul (Turkey) and run through the facilities.
The agents are still looking for 12 people among those who fled.
Both Aena and the Ministry of the Interior are analyzing the possible rulings that allowed, for the second time since November last year, dozens of immigrants to use a critical infrastructure such as an airport to enter Spain illegally.
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