3 human traffickers sentenced to 125 years each in death of Syrian boy whose body washed ashore and was captured in famous photograph
Three people believed to be organizers of a human trafficking ring were sentenced Friday in a Turkish court to 125 years each in prison for the death of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, Turkish state media reported. The lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan lying on a beach in Turkey was captured in a photograph that became a symbol of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis.
The Bodrum High Criminal Court in Mugla sentenced the defendants for the crime of "killing with eventual intent."
The traffickers, fugitives from justice, had been captured by Turkish security forces this week in the southern province of Adana, according to state news agency Andalou.
A number of Syrian and Turkish defendants were found responsible for the accident and were sentenced to prison time. The three defendants sentenced had fled trial, Andalou reported.
Aylan was one of 14 Syrian refugees, including eight children, who took a boat that sank in the Aegean Sea while en route to Greek islands. Aylan's brother Galip, 5, and mother Rihan, 35, also died. His father, Abdullah, survived.
"The waves were so high, and the captain panicked and jumped into the sea," Abdullah said. "I took my wife and children in my arms, but they were all dead."
The family was fleeing the Syrian town of Kobani, which was decimated when ISIS tried to seize it, leaving nearly everyone there homeless.