Appeals Court Upholds 27 Years for Migrant Smugglers

The Special Department for organized crime of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade has rejected the defense appeals and left in place every sentence the Higher Court in Belgrade handed down on March 24, 2026 to five members of a group involved in migrant smuggling from Serbia to Hungary. The sentences add up to 27 years in prison. Media reported the second-instance ruling on October 27, citing a post on the court’s website.

How long did each defendant get?

All five were convicted of the criminal offense of “illegal crossing of the state border and smuggling of people.” The sentences are:

• Nikolaj Petrov Totov, seven years in prison
• Halil Kardas, six years
• Petr Maresa, five years
• David Rafael, five years
• Jeton Dervisaj, four years

Totov, Maresa, Rafael and Kardas were also given a security measure of expulsion from the country, ten years each. Reports of the court’s post do not mention that measure for Dervisaj.

What did the group do?

According to the verdict, the five convicted were members of an organized criminal group that operated from May 23, 2022 to March 27, 2023 in Serbia and Hungary, for financial gain. That is a little over ten months of activity. The first-instance verdict came almost three years after the end of that period.

The organizers set up a scheme under which migrants were charged 500 euros each for crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border to Budapest, and up to 1,000 euros each to Vienna. The migrants were moved from Serbia into Hungary.

What is still unknown?

The date of the second-instance ruling has not been published. Nor is it stated how many migrants were taken across the border, or what nationalities the convicted hold. At the time of checking, the ruling was not visible in the news list on the Court of Appeal’s website.