21 Greek coast guards, officials, charged in deadly migrant shipwreck
May 27 (UPI) -- A court in Greece charged 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard and four officials in connection with a shipwreck in which as many as 650 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern city of Pylos in June 2023.
Piraeus Naval Court deputy prosecutor Monday charged the captain of the coast guard vessel LS-920 with causing a shipwreck resulting in the deaths of 82 people -- the number of bodies recovered -- reckless interference with maritime transport and failure to provide assistance to a vessel in distress at sea.
The charges stem from an alleged bungled effort by the coastguards to tow the overloaded Adriana, which was attempting to smuggle 750 paying migrants to Italy from Libya, causing it to capsize, and then conspiring to cover it up.
Just 104 survivors were rescued. Another estimated 500 people beneath the deck of the fishing boat, including 100 women and children, remain missing, presumed drowned, according to the United Nations.
The 16 crew members were charged with being complicit in the criminal acts allegedly committed by the captain, while the then-chief of the Coast Guard and the supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center in Piraeus were among four officials charged with "exposing others to danger."
Under Greece's legal system, charges do not necessarily mean a case will go to trial.
Legal counsel for the victim said the charges were "a substantial and self-evident development in the course of vindication of the victims and the delivery of justice."
Greek authorities have consistently denied the allegations made by survivors, claiming instead that the Coast Guard had instructed nearby ships to resupply the Adriana with fuel, food and water to enable it to sail on to Italy as it was not in need of rescuing.
The Coast Guard initially declined to launch a disciplinary probe into the actions of the LS-920's captain and crew.
However, analysis by the BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, other media outlets and human rights organizations of data and evidence from eyewitnesses found that the vessel was stationary for hours before it sank.
Critical video, call and radio traffic evidence between the Adriana and the Coast Guard, said to be unavailable due to equipment failure, which has since been leaked, appears to show the Coast Guard instructing the Adriana's captain to tell the ships offering assistance that he wanted to continue to Italy.
In one of the tapes, a National Search and Rescue Coordination Center officer apparently coaches the captain of the Lucky Sailor, one of the vessels that resupplied the Adriana, about what he had seen and heard -- "ok, ok, everybody screaming that they don't want Greece and they want Italy? -- and instructs him to make sure he records it in the ship's log.
A trial of nine Egyptians accused of people smuggling and causing the disaster collapsed in May 2024 after a Greek court threw out the case, ruling it lacked jurisdiction because the Adriana went down 47 miles out at sea, meaning it was in international waters.
The coast guard defended its record, telling the BBC in February that it was internationally renowned for its humanitarian efforts, particularly as it had rescued more than 250,000 migrants from the seas around Greece in the past 10 years and detained at least 1,000 people smugglers.
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