The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has released the 22 migrants who were arrested for forcing a landing of an Air Arabia plane in Palma last November.
Their release comes after a recent amendment by the Spanish Penal Code repealing the crime of sedition.
The Prosecutor’s Office has sought for each of these migrants a sentence of five years in prison, as perpetrators of a crime of sedition.
The Balearic Court ruled that their conduct does not fit into aggravated public disorder, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
The group of 20 Moroccan travelers aboard a plane headed from Casablanca to Istanbul managed to escape in a Spanish airport after one of them allegedly faked a health issue and force-landed the airplane.
Footage shared on social media showed the group of travelers bursting out of the airplane and into the airport, after the sick traveler was taken out.
In the indictment, the magistrate pointed out that the entire operation was premeditated, maintaining that the two passengers who initially attended the alleged patient on the plane faked being doctors.
The false patient was arrested that same night after being treated at a hospital in Mallorca and 21 other passengers were arrested over the following days.
Four passengers are still on the run.
The magistrate built her case on aerial chaos that caused the emergency landing, leading the airport to closed for hours for security reasons. The unexpected landing, she asserts raised alarm in a nearby army base.
A blog post was shared on social media since July 17 was behind the meticulously planned operation, with a detailed scheme to cross into Spanish borders.
The blogpost was allegedly looking for “forty volunteers” to book tickets for a flight from Casablanca to Istanbul, passing by Spanish airspace. One of the “volunteers” would then pretend to be sick after entering Spain, forcing the plane to land.
The blogpost allegedly planned for different scenarios, such as an airplane crew asking the sick volunteer to wait until they reach Turkey, upon which his companions would pressure them to conduct an emergency landing to take him to a hospital.
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