Seventeen of 24 people who fled from an Air Arabia Maroc plane that made an emergency landing in Palma three years ago have been convicted by a court in Palma.
Following an agreement with the court, the seventeen accepted convictions for air sedition, coercion and mistreatment. These convictions relate to events of November 5, 2021. The seventeen admitted that they were part of a Facebook group that planned a faked medical emergency - a diabetic coma - so that the plane from Casablanca to Istanbul would make an emergency landing in Palma. This was to enable them to enter Spain illegally. They forced their way off the plane and ran off.
The court sentenced each of them to fourteen months in prison. They will not serve these sentences as the fourteen months correspond to the period they were held in preventive custody. In addition, they have to each pay a fine of 160 euros for mistreatment - that of members of the crew who tried to prevent them leaving the plane.
The person who faked the medical emergency has been fined a further 960 euros, and two residents of Sencelles have been fined the same amount for having hidden individuals who fled from the plane.
The specific crime of air sedition was established following the repeal of Spain's general sedition law. Under the former law, they could have all faced five years in prison.
They were released in January last year. At that time they were not expelled from Spain as their trial was pending. Having served the sentences, they will not be expelled through the criminal process, though it is believed that an administrative procedure for expulsion may be initiated. Their passports have been returned.
The other seven are at large, and there are international warrants for their arrest.
More than eighty flights were affected as a result of the incident. Airspace was closed for three hours on the night of November 5.