“Dover 58” trial reveals flawed investigation
01 November 2003
The investigation and trial, after 58 undocumented Chinese migrants suffocated to death on 18 June 2000 on the journey between Zeebrugge and Dover, has raised many questions regarding the extent of police knowledge and involvement in the people-smuggling business.
The Dutch "Dover" trial started in Rotterdam on 19 April 2001 when nine people appeared in court, eight of whom were charged with being an accessory to manslaughter, human trafficking and membership of a criminal organisation, and one with forgery. The main suspects were jailed for nine years (Gursel O and Haci C) and seven years (Lammert N) while two of the defendants were acquitted. In June 2002, the High Court ruled on the mens' appeal: Gursel O received ten and a half years and Haci C and Lammert N five years imprisonment. The remaining accused received sentences of 22 months upwards.
On 28 May 2003, a related court case against Jing Ping C and seven other suspects began in Rotterdam. Seven men were charged with trafficking and membership of a criminal organisation while Jing Ping C was said to be responsible for human trafficking from China. According to the prosecution she had a monopoly on transport routes to the UK that allowed her to smuggle in several thousand people. On 29 June she was convicted of heading a criminal organisation and trafficking to the UK; she was acquitted of involvement in the Dover case. The other suspects received sentences ranging from six years to four months. Si Young L. was given a six year sentence for preparing the fatal Dover transportation and two other deliveries.
Jing Ping C was arrested in Rotterdam on 28 May 2002 as part of Operation Opaal, the investigation into the deaths of the Dover 58. She denied allegations that she is "Sister P", identified by the police and media as a ruthless criminal, unafraid of using violence against her employees and the people she smuggled, and was not charged with any acts of violence. She was accused of 25 offences of trafficking, including the Dover case, but few people from the Chinese community were prepared to give evidence against her.
The case against her was dependent on transcripts of 20,000 telephone conversations. Three of the conversations formed the basis of the prosecution's case. Firstly, a conversation on 19 March 2002 in which "Sister P" said that she suffers from nightmares and that while she did not kill people with her own hands she was responsible. Secondly, on 22 March 2002, when asked about problems in China she replied that "money is not a problem." Finally, on 9 April 2002, she said: "my boys are doing fine at the moment...Now there are 60 or 70 each month...". Lawyers for Jing Ping C argued that some of the interceptions were inadmissible; having been used in a previous case their reuse would violate interception regulations. The police claimed that they had only asked for translations of relevant passages relating to a murder trial and not on trafficking.
The defence also questioned the reliability of the transcripts as the police had them translated from the southern Chinese dialect spoken by "Sister P" into Mandarin and then into Dutch. Further doubts were voiced about the identification of individuals heard on the tapes - the number of interceptions made the allocation of specific conversations far from accurate. Gerard van der Hardt Aberson, the lawyer for one of the suspects, argued that the core prosecution evidence - the telephone conversations - did not constitute evidence. Other evidence, derived from an earlier trial that collapsed, led Jing Ping C’s lawyer to argue that the prosecution was using the old investigation to cover up the deficiencies of the current one.
Evidence implicating Jing Ping C was heard from an imprisoned Chinese trafficker Chun H, who was jailed for 12 years for murder in 1999. He had previously provided the police with family details of "Sister P" and her "Uncle C", who he accused of being managers of<