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PARIS (Reuters) – Indian passengers detained since Thursday at Paris-Vatry airport (Marne) due to suspicions of human trafficking are being questioned on Sunday to determine whether they should remain in the airport waiting area is necessary.
There will be four simultaneous hearings, the public prosecutor of the Châlons-en-Champagne judicial court, Annick Browne, confirmed to Reuters.
The number of people who can be interviewed on Sunday will depend on how the procedures evolve.
Furthermore, the Paris prosecutor’s office authorized the lifting of the seizure of the plane at midday on Sunday, a judicial source said.
“This decision makes it possible to consider the rerouting of passengers placed in the waiting zone,” commented the prefect of Marne in a press release, adding that the re-takeoff of the plane “should take place no later than Monday morning” , without specifying to which destination.
It was unclear whether passengers, who “continue to be supported in the waiting area”, would be able to resume their journey.
The Airbus A340 of the Romanian company Legend Airlines was operating a flight between Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Nicaragua with 303 Indian passengers on board and was making a technical stopover in France when it was grounded on Thursday.
According to a source close to the case, the administrative detention of these people could only last 96 hours, hence the hearings which begin on Sunday before judges of freedoms and detention in order to determine whether they must be kept at the airport. .
Among the passengers, 58 requested political asylum in France, the president of Châlons-en-Champagne, François Procureur, told France Bleu Champagne-Ardenne.
The two police custody measures decided against two passengers in order to verify whether their role could have been different from that of the others in this transport were extended on Saturday evening, for a maximum period of 48 hours, and its still in progress after the seizure of the plane was lifted, according to a source from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
(Written by Kate Entringer)
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