(24 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris - 24 December 2023
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
“We have scheduled a departure for 10am tomorrow (0900GMT Monday) morning for Mumbai in India with as much (many) passengers as possible. Some of them have requested asylum in France so obviously they won’t leave for now, most probably, some of them might still remain in custody so they won’t leave either and the others should be able to leave.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
“The judge just declared void the procedure of keeping them in the airport because the schedule was not right, they waited too long to see the judge, to file the necessary documents etc and the judge considers that, well, the prejudice (she means harm) suffered by the people concerning their personal rights is too high so they are allowed to go.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
“We hope that it will be almost 300 people cause as far as we know there are maybe less than ten that have requested asylum and two for now, as far as we know, are in custody so hopefully the major part will leave tomorrow (Monday).”
++BLACK FRAMES++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
“Well according to the information we got yesterday (Saturday), two of the passengers and even I guess maybe on Friday, two of the passengers have been put into custody so I guess they won’t, they will most probably remain in custody and won’t be able to leave tomorrow, maybe later or I don’t know how the procedure will evolve.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
"We are hoping to be able to take off tomorrow (Monday) at 10am (local time) bound for Mumbai, India, with a maximum number of passengers aboard, a maximum number of passengers aboard because the French judicial authorities have indeed cancelled the decision to maintain the passengers in the airport waiting lounge and the passengers are now free to leave French territory bound for a country that is ready to to welcome them.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Liliana Bakayoko, Legend Airlines lawyer:
“Indeed, some passengers have requested asylum and they maintain that request but they could at any moment renounce that request and decide to leave for India. If they maintain their asylum request, they will likely remain in France for now. The people who were put into custody will most likely remain in France but the major part of the passengers, most likely more than round 280, should be able to leave."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A lawyer for the Legend Airlines charter flight, an unmarked A340 plane that’s been sequestered in a small airport in Northeastern France, said on Sunday the airline has scheduled a departure bound for Mumbia, India on Monday at 10am local time.
Liliana Bakayoko told the Associated Press that the company expected nearly all of the original passengers to be aboard on Monday except two whom were said to be in custody and less than 10 she said that have put in asylum requests.
While AP has not been able to reach judicial authorities to confirm they’ve cleared the passengers to leave France, they were expected to decide on Sunday whether these Indian passengers, some 300, who are suspected of being victims of human trafficking, should remain sequestered in the airport.
If they could not be held any longer, they will be free to leave the country.
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