(21 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kalamata, Greece – 21 May 2024
1. Pan inside courtroom after the end of proceedings with human rights activists shouting slogans: (Greek) "The passion for freedom is stronger than all the prison cells" and "The Aegean (Sea) is filled with the bodies of migrants. Greeks are also murderers of the people."
STORYLINE:
Human rights activists cheered and chanted slogans after a judge announced the dismissal of a case Tuesday against nine Egyptian men accused of causing a shipwreck that killed hundreds of migrants last year.
International human rights groups argued that the accused’s’ right to a fair trial was compromised because they faced judgment while an investigation into the Greek coast guard’s rescue attempt is still underway.
The decision by Presiding Judge Eftichia Kontaratou came shortly after the trial opened in the southern Greek city of Kalamata.
More than 500 people are believed to have gone down with the overcrowded Adriana fishing trawler, which had been traveling from Libya to Italy.
Only 104 people were rescued — all men, the vast majority from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt — and 82 bodies were recovered.
The defendants, most in their 20s, had been accused of being part of the trawler’s crew and therefore being responsible for the mistreatment of the passengers and for the massively overcrowded conditions which authorities argued led to the boat capsizing and sinking on June 14 last year.
They faced up to life in prison had they been convicted of the multiple criminal charges against them, including people smuggling and causing a deadly shipwreck.
The judge’s ruling followed a recommendation by public prosecutor Ekaterini Tsironi for the case to be dismissed because the trawler sank outside Greek territorial waters.
The case had faced criticism from international human rights groups, who argued that the defendants’ right to a fair trial was compromised because they faced judgment while a separate Naval Court investigation into the sinking and the Greek coast guard’s actions is still underway.
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