Woman let off after helping migrant lover get to UK
A former Front National candidate who helped her Iranian migrant lover cross the Channel to Britain has escaped punishment by a court in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Béatrice Huret, 44, who recently published a co-written account of her experiences – Calais mon amour – states in the book: “I had a pretty good idea that what I was doing wasn’t very legal, even if it was perfectly moral which was the only thing that mattered to me”.
Ms Huret, a one-time FN local election candidate, had become involved in helping migrants at the Calais ‘Jungle’ after the death of her husband, who is said to have previously influenced her to support his far-right views.
She has said her attraction to her lover Mokhtar, who she met while volunteering in the camp, was ‘love at first sight’. The 36-year-old teacher said he was fleeing persecution by the Iranian regime.
She helped him by buying an inflatable boat on leboncoin.fr and helping him embark with two other migrants from a creek near Calais. They were later picked up by coastguards from Hastings as the boat was starting to fill with water and sink.
Public prosecutor Camille Gourlin told the court that “solidarity is praise-worthy but not at any price and under any conditions”.
Despite being asked to impose a year’s suspended sentence, the court gave no punishment while finding Ms Huret technically guilty of aiding Mokhtar to cross to the UK illegally.
Mokhtar is now living in Sheffield and has obtained refugee status.
