Greek court acquits 9 Egyptian shipwreck survivors accused of illegal trafficking

The Criminal Appeal Court of Kalamata dismissed charges against nine Egyptian shipwreck survivors on Tuesday after they were charged with causing one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever to take place in the Mediterranean.

The court decided to acquit the defendants on the grounds that the shipwreck happened outside of Greek waters and that the defendants did not intend to enter Greece by sea. 

The defendants faced accusations of causing a shipwreck, trafficking, forming a criminal organization and illegal entry into Greek territory, and would have faced multiple life sentences if convicted.

The Egyptian defendants acquitted Tuesday have been in pre-trial detention for almost a year, following their arrest after a boat carrying migrants capsized in one of the deadliest shipwrecks to ever take place on the Mediterranean. Out of around 750 individuals, 103 people survived the sinking of the overcrowded fishing trawler which departed from Libya in June 2023. Witness testimonies claim that the Greek coastguard towed the vessel, causing the ship to sink. At least 82 bodies were recovered, and over 500 people who were on the boat are missing or presumed dead.

The nine Egyptian nationals were arrested less than a day after the harrowing incident and in their interrogations, they were subject to assault and coercion to sign on to testimonies they had not written.

“Our courts have no jurisdiction to try this particular offense. The incident took place in international waters,” said Dimitris Choulis of the defendants’ legal team at the beginning of the trial while presenting their case. 

Each defendant was initially appointed a state lawyer who was later replaced with human rights lawyers during their incarceration. 

According to independent Greek outlet OmniaTV, the Egyptian defendants’ legal team argued that the shipwreck happened in international waters, with several witnesses testifying that it occurred nearly 47 to 50 nautical miles outside of Greek national waters. Public Prosecutor Ekaterini Tsironi presented a similar argument. 

Greek authorities closed the investigation in January, rejecting the legal defense’s request for further evidence to be considered or additional witnesses to be interrogated, which, according to the defendants, were capable of proving their innocence.

Moreover, investigating authorities rejected the defense lawyers’ appeals against their pre-trial detention, as well as their request for their cellphones to be inspected from the shipwreck. 

The nine defendants "are random people, illegal immigrants who paid the same amount as everyone else to make this trip to Italy with the goal of a better life and are accused of being part of the smuggling ring," the defense team lawyer, Vicky Angelidou, said during a press conference ahead of the trial on Thursday.

Outside of the courthouse, a number of protesters, including other survivors of the shipwreck, called for justice for the defendants in the early hours of Tuesday. According to reports, they clashed with the Greek riot police and two of them were detained. 

International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have raised concerns about whether the trial was fair given that another case filed before the Maritime Court investigating the Greek Coast Guard’s role in the shipwreck and rescue operations is still in its preliminary phase. 

According to testimonies of the defendants, as well as other survivors, the Coast Guard attempted to tow the overcrowded boat, leading it to capsize. They also corroborated existing evidence which points to a network of actors in Egypt and Libya involved in human trafficking across the Mediterranean in their testimonies from prison. 

Despite sailing in international waters, the fishing trawler was in distress in an area within Greece’s zone of search and rescue and the Greek Coast Guard waited for almost a day to initiate rescue operations, in what is considered a delayed response by the survivors and independent investigations of the shipwreck.

The nine Egyptians’ acquittal, however, marks a shift from the usual systematic smuggling accusations directed to immigrants by the Greek authorities, which has a documented history of pushbacks of refugees and other abuses at its land and sea borders.