A Greek court in Kalamata dismissed charges against nine Egyptian men accused of causing a shipwreck that killed hundreds of migrants last year.
Public prosecutor Ekaterini Tsironi recommended that the charges be dismissed, saying that Greek jurisdiction could be established because the overcrowded trawler sank outside Greek territorial waters.
Defense lawyer Spyros Pantazis earlier asked the court to declare itself incompetent to try the case, arguing that the sinking occurred outside Greek territorial waters.
“The court should not be turned into an international punisher,” Pantazis told the panel of three judges.
Presiding judge Eftichia Kontaratou questioned all nine defendants through an interpreter. The accused said they intended to travel to Italy, not Greece, and several declared their innocence.
Kontaratou acknowledged that there “were no Greeks on board, it was not under a Greek flag and all the documents refer to the (vessel being) 47 nautical miles away.”
Accused in the migrant shipwreck case just scapegoats?
Earlier defense lawyers claimed that the nine defendants were just scapegoats.
The defense maintained that they were charged with insufficient proof and that the investigation was closed within months without thoroughly examining available evidence.
The Greek lawyers maintained their clients’ innocence, saying all nine defendants had been paying passengers who had been misidentified as crew members by other survivors who gave testimonies under duress just hours after having been rescued.
The nine “are random people, smuggled people who paid the same amounts as all the others to take this trip to Italy aiming for a better life, and they are accused of being part of the smuggling team,” lawyer and defense team member Vicky Aggelidou said recently.
The suspects “are scapegoats to cover up the responsibilities of the (Greek) coastguard,” defense lawyer Natasha Dailiani told a news conference. “There must be a fair trial and a search for the real causes” of the disaster, she said.
More than 750 people perished
The men aged 21 to 37 have been held for nearly a year following the sinking last June. They were among the 104 survivors of a rusty and overcrowded trawler, the Adriana, that sank off the coast of Pylos, western Greece.
Eighty-two bodies were recovered from the shipwreck but based on testimony from survivors and relatives, the ship was feared to have been carrying more than 750 people.
The suspects were accused of being part of a migrant smuggling group operating the trawler. Some were hospitalized after their rescue.
Survivors have said the Greek coastguard tied a rope to the Adriana and powered out to sea, causing it to capsize. Greek officials deny that account. Survivors have also said Greek coastguard officials took away their mobile phones after the rescue.