The trial for the sinking of the fishing boat Adriana, one of the worst maritime disasters in recent decades in the Mediterranean, begins this Tuesday in a court in Kalamata, Greece. Nine survivors remain in prison since they were rescued alive along with 96 other people. The prosecution accuses them of being solely responsible for the sinking of the Adriana, and asks for several life sentences for each of them. The old fishing boat has been lying since June 14, 2023 in the Calypso trench, one of the deepest points in the Mediterranean, along with the bodies of some 600 missing people, of which at least a hundred are women and children.
The dilapidated ship had left Libya five days earlier, clearly exceeding its carrying capacity. About 750 people were packed into it: Syrian, Afghan, Egyptian and Pakistani refugees. Men, women – several pregnant -, teenagers and children who were trapped in the hold of the boat with no possibility of saving themselves. Only 82 bodies were recovered and 104 men were rescued alive. The accused were among them.
These are nine Egyptian citizens between the ages of 20 and 40. The prosecution accuses them of being part of the criminal organization that organized the deadly trip. They allege that they are migrants who paid to board the Adriana, who are not part of any organization and who do not even know each other. On June 16, just two days after the shipwreck, Morning Express was present when relatives of the now accused arrived at the court after hearing the news that they had been arrested when they appeared at the Port Authority of Kalamata. to try to clarify if those close to him had survived the tragedy. The relatives showed their surprise upon learning of the accusations and stated at all times that they did not know each other.
Interrogations without the presence of lawyers
The prosecution bases its accusations on the testimony of other castaways who were interrogated on the ship in the port of Kalamata where the Coast Guard detained them for two days. During this time, although they showed obvious symptoms of post-traumatic stress and several had to be treated for panic attacks, the survivors were not allowed to leave the fenced area or have contact with the outside world. Officials from the Ministry of Justice, assisted by agents from different police forces, questioned them without the presence of lawyers and, after that, made nine arrests among those present.
The prosecution’s indictment, to which this newspaper has had access, indicates that the captain of the fishing boat, who drowned and is among the missing, is not among the accused. None of those questioned identified the accused as part of the crew that transported the boat from Egypt to Libya, where they boarded along with the rest of the passengers. The witnesses cited by the prosecution do identify several defendants. According to their testimony, one of them helped the mechanic who was traveling on the bridge with the captain when the engine broke down; another distributed water provided by two oil tankers who assisted them hours before they were shipwrecked, and a third urged calm and tried to reassure the passengers in one of the many moments of tension that were experienced during the journey. Lawyer Vicky Aggelidou, who defends a defendant who goes by the initials SAA, considers that “the actions that the defendants have allegedly carried out do not in any way justify the charges against them.”
Join Morning Express to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
Testimonies collected in various investigations pointed to a reckless maneuver by the coast guard as the cause of the shipwreck. Morning Express interviewed with Lighthouse Reports, Reporters United, Monitor, SIRAJand Der Spiegel to 17 witnesses, 16 of whom explained that when the fishing boat’s engine stopped working, a Coast Guard boat towed them with a rope at high speed. Then, the fishing boat sank.
Confiscated cell phones
Of them, two survivors claimed that they recorded the tow sequence with their cell phones and the coast guard later confiscated their devices. In fact, the proceedings show that not only their cell phones but those of all the survivors were seized by the authorities, but the content of them has not been provided to the court. The defense lawyers requested an expert analysis of the telephones, which the instructor denied. The lawyers also requested that the phones of the agents of LS 920—the boat that supposedly attempted the towing maneuver—be analyzed, which was also denied. The Coast Guard assures that the sophisticated camera system that the LS 920 is equipped with was not working at the time of the shipwreck.
There are other relevant aspects of the Coast Guard’s actions that have not been clarified. A report by the European Border Agency (Frontex) accused Greece of serious negligence. In it, the agency’s Office for Fundamental Rights (ODF) denounced that the objective of the Greek authorities was not to prevent the shipwreck and that they did not mobilize enough resources to save their lives when they could still do so. The document also reveals the lack of collaboration of the Greek Government in the investigation. Greece, according to the document published last February, deployed “insufficient and inappropriate resources considering the number of passengers on board the Adriana“, and did not use “the resources offered by Frontex.” In addition, he accuses the country’s authorities of delaying the declaration of the search and rescue (SAR) operation “until the moment of the shipwreck, when it was no longer possible to rescue all the people on board,” despite that “there was reasonable certainty” that they were “threatened by serious and imminent danger and required immediate assistance.”
40 survivors of the AdrianaThey filed a complaint with the Naval Court, the body competent to investigate the irregular actions of the coast guard. Human rights organizations regret that the court has not taken any steps in the investigation.
Although all parties are summoned and already present in Kalamata, there is a risk that the trial will be suspended for two reasons. The first, because the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (ADEDY) has called for a general strike for May 21 to which court officials could join. The second, because Miltiadis Zouridakis, the captain of the LS 920, considered by the defenses to be the most important witness in the case, is serving on the Italian island of Lampedusa, as part of a Frontex operation of which said coastal patrol is a part. and it is unknown if he will be present at the hearing.
Follow all the international information onFacebook andxor inour weekly newsletter.
.
.
_