Migrant boat pilot loses bid to appeal sentence
An asylum seeker who drove a boat into the English Channel where four passengers drowned has not succeeded in bringing a challenge against his conviction and sentence.
Ibrahima Bah was convicted of murder and helping to breach UK immigration law Sentenced to nine and a half years of house arrest in February after the boat capsized in an attempt to cross the reef in December 2022.
During a retrial at Canterbury Crown Court, Bah said the smugglers had threatened to kill him if he did not move the boat, but the prosecution said he was not telling the truth.
Earlier in the Court of Appeal, Bah had not received the green light to bring his challenge.
Baroness Carr, the female chief justice, said Bah could not appeal, saying the decision was not “debatable”.
Richard Thomas Casey, for Bah, previously described his trial as “touching on a highly politicized issue which gives rise to very strong emotions”.
Jurors heard that the home-made, low-quality inflatable dinghy was not supposed to have carried more than 20 people, but about 45 were aboard that night in the English Channel.
Mr Thomas told the appeal court that traveling to the UK was a “joint effort”, and Bah’s actions “meant that a route to the UK was available”.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opposed the appeal bid.
