Monthly Archives: February 2024

[17.02.2024] Crete: 16-year-old faces 4670 years in prison for smuggling

17.02.2024

Crete: 16-year-old faces 4670 years in prison for smuggling

Joint statement by borderline-europe, Aegean Migrant Solidarity and Can’t Evict Solidarity

Nearly a year ago, H. Elfallah, a fisherman from Egypt, was sentenced to 280 years in prison for the “unauthorized transportation of third-country nationals into Greek territory”. Now, on 28 February 2024, his minor son, the now 16-year-old M. Elfallah, will stand trial for the same accusations in the juvenile court in Crete. Father and son attempted to reach Europe together on a boat in November 2022. Utilizing his skills as a fisherman, the father took on tasks on board – and both were subsequently arrested for smuggling uppn arrival in Greece. Their story clearly shows: Europe’s purported “fight against criminal smugglers” primarily targets refugees themselves.

Although M. and his father embarked on the journey together in November 2022, the teenager has now been separated from his father for almost 1.5 years. Separated because they were arrested by the Greek authorities on arrival for smuggling. Separated because in Greece, merely taking on tasks on board is sufficient to fulfil the legal definition of smuggling. Separated because his father was placed immediately in pretrial detention, while M. was placed in a shelter for minors. Separated because H. Elfallah was sentenced to 280 years in prison in March 2023, while M. has been awaiting his trial for the same charges

H. Elfallah is a 45-year-old father of four, a fisherman from Egypt. After one of his sons migrated to the United Kingdom, he and his 15-year-old son sought to follow. On 21 November, 2022, they boarded a large fishing boat in Libya, along with hundreds of others. It should be understood that a boat must be steered by someone, especially one of this size. A boat of this size typically requires multiple individuals to handle navigation, steering, and mechanics.

H. Elfallah did not wish to take on these tasks; he did not want to be responsible for hundreds of people on a poorly equipped boat, unprepared for such a journey. However, with the increasing criminalisation of facilitating migration, it is usually the migrants themselves who have to steer the boat. And as Elfallah could not afford the trip for his son and himself, he offered his seafaring experience as payment and agreed on taking over some piloting tasks in return for a cheaper fare.

As a result, he and his son were charged not only with smuggling of a total of 467 people, but also with the aggravating circumstances of having acted for profit and being part of a criminal organisation.

This is a particularly perfidious abuse of a law whose purpose is supposedly to protect refugees from exploitation. The authorities base the accusation of profiteering on the fact that they received a reduced price for the trip in return for taking over some of the piloting tasks. This means that the law is not only punishing those it claims to protect, but in fact the most marginalized among them, who cannot afford the trip and are therefore forced to expose themselves to even greater risk; something we have seen in other cases such as the Paros3.

The case of the Elfallah family vividly illustrates the real-life impact of European anti-smuggling policies and legislation.

H. Elfallah and another passenger were already found guilty and sentenced to 280 years in prison by the Court in Crete on 6 March 62023. Now, on Wednesday, 28 February 2024, the minor M. Elfallah is also facing the same charges in court.

Maria Flouraki, lawyer of M. Elfallah: “My client is a minor who is not involved and could not be involved – due to his age – in illegal smuggling. He is just a kid accompanying his father. He found himself in an unruly vessel without his will. We trust justice.”

He and his family need our full solidarity!

Together with Mohamad, M.’s brother and H. Elfallah’s son, we demand:

  • That the charges against the minor son be dropped and the father be released from prison.
  • Freedom for all those imprisoned for “boat driving” when there is no alternative to reach the European Union.
  • An end to the criminalization of migration and the incarceration of people on the move.

For more information, please reach out to Julia Winkler, borderline-europe: jw@borderline-europe.de

Background info:
Based on this interpretation of people smuggling, thousands of individuals have already been convicted and incarcerated for years, despite the fact that they were simply trying to seek safety for themselves and others. Our study, “A Legal Vacuum – The Systematic Criminalisation of Migrants for Steering a Boat or Car to Greece”, illustrates how the filing of such charges against migrants arriving in Greece has been systematically employed by the Greek state for several years.

The arrests that follow these often unsubstantiated accusations of smuggling are arbitrary, and the subsequent trials blatantly disregard basic standards of fairness. Lacking sufficient evidence, individuals are typically arrested on arrival and subjected to prolonged pre-trial detention. Shockingly, when their cases finally reach the courtroom, the trials average a mere 37 minutes in duration, resulting in an average sentence of 46 years and fines totaling over 332,209 Euros.

Additional reading:

Statement from 21/2/2024: After the Moria fire in 2020, the judicial scandal continues – Demand for fair and transparent trial on 4 March 2024 in Lesbos.

Statement 21/2/2024 of the Solidarity Campaign #FreetheMoria6

After the Moria fire in 2020, the judicial scandal continues – Demand for fair and transparent trial on 4 March 2024 in Lesbos.

Four teenagers from Afghanistan have been detained for 3.5 years despite clear evidence of their innocence. They are being made scapegoats of a failed EU migration policy.

On 4 March 2024, the appeal trial of four of the Moria 6, juveniles convicted for the fires that destroyed the infamous Moria camp on 8/9 September 2020, will take place at the Court of Appeal in Mytilene, Lesvos. Originally scheduled for Monday 6 March 2023, the appeal has been postponed for a year. Finally, the crucial new evidence can be presented showing that the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness is completely false.

This new evidence comes from the investigation conducted by Forensic Architecture (FA) and Forensis (commissioned by the lawyers representing the Moria 6), which maps the development of the fire on 8 September 2020. The appeal will also provide an opportunity to interrogate the testimony of the key witness.

Dimitra Andritsou, research coordinator of the FA/Forensis team, stated: “The analysis we conducted […] proves that the young asylum seekers accused of arson were arrested on the basis of weak and contradictory evidence, suggesting that […] the Greek government needed a scapegoat for a disaster that was pre-programmed.”

Only a few days after the fires in September 2020, the police had arrested six teenagers (the Moria 6) and accused them of arson. From the moment of their arrest, they were already presented to the public as guilty.

The Moria 6 were tried in two separate trials that were widely described as a “parody of justice.” Although documents proving their age were available, only two of the six arrested were recognized as minors. The four defendants who were identified as adults were sentenced in the first instance to 10 years in prison in June 2021, convicted of arson endangering human life, with the court refusing to consider any mitigating circumstances.“They did not listen to us at all,” said one lawyer as she left the courtroom, “this verdict was already determined when the defendants were arrested in mid-September 2020.” Immediately after the verdict was announced, the defense filed an appeal.

After the verdict on 11 June 2021, international trial observers criticized the lack of evidence and spoke of an unfair trial. The international trial observers concluded in their comprehensive report on the trial that the defendants’ right to a fair trial was repeatedly violated. Despite the lack of evidence of the four defendants’ involvement in the fires, they were found guilty after a two-day trial. Essential trial documents were not translated for the defendants, so that they were unable to understand the accusations leveled against them. For this reason alone, the trial is formally invalid.

The postponement of the Moria 6 appeal also meant that important new evidence showing that three of the four young men were minors when they were arrested can be examined only now.

It must be emphasized again that the court relied solely on the written testimony of a witness who allegedly could no longer be found. However, his testimony is full of contradictions, as the extensive analysis of the night of the fire now shows. In addition, he only mentioned first names, commonly shared among people living in the camp, on the basis of which the police arrested six teenagers. The “witness” was not present at any trial. It can only be assumed that the court was aware of the fictitious testimony of the only witness, and that they did not want to jeopardize the conviction of the youths in this political trial, despite the lack of evidence.

The fear of a preliminary conviction had already come true when the two Moria 6 youths who were officially recognized as minors, were sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Lesvos Juvenile Court in March 2021. On 7 June 2022, the sentence from the first instance was confirmed by the Juvenile Court of Appeal, although there was still no credible evidence. Τhe sentence was only reduced from five to four years due to “good behavior in prison.” The Legal Centre Lesvos filed an application to annul the unfair sentence. This was rejected by the Supreme Court.. The application will now go to the European Court of Justice. Meanwhile, A.A. was released on parole for good behaviour, and M.H. was taken directly from prison into detention for deportation.

The injustices committed since the arrest of the Moria 6 are unfortunately not isolated cases, but part of the systematic criminalization of asylum seekers in Greece.

The sentencing of the six youths is another shocking example of how people on the move are criminalized to distract from the crime of the EU and Greece of building and maintaining inhumane camps like Moria. Brutally, the reform of the “Common European Asylum System” (CEAS) provides for further camps modeled on Moria at the EU’s external borders.

We stand in solidarity with the Moria 6 and against the deadly EU border regime!

We call on the EU and the Greek state to take responsibility for the inhumane camps they created that result only human suffering!

++Share the info, organize solidarity actions under the hashtag #FreeTheMoria6.

Political and public pressure could increase the chances of their release!

++For information on the legal context, see Legal Centre Lesvos

More information and contacts:
Email: freethemoria6@riseup.net
Twitter: #FreeTheMoria6
Blog: https://freethemoria6.noblogs.org/

 

Press contact
Alice Kleinschmidt, Welcome Office Lesvos: +30 698 872 4982
Nefeli Belavila – Trova, CPT – Aegean Migrant Solidarity: lesvos@cpt.org