Charges dropped against nine Egyptians over 2023 migrant shipwreck off Greece

Charges have been dropped against nine Egyptian men accused of causing one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwrecks off Greece last year, after a Greek court said it had no jurisdiction to hear the case because the disaster occurred in international waters.

Up to 700 people from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt boarded a fishing trawler in Libya that was bound for Italy before sinking off the coast of Pylos, in south-western Greece, on 14 June. A hundred and four survivors were rescued and only 82 bodies were recovered.

The men, aged between 21 and 41, were arrested hours after the boat sank and have remained in pre-trial detention on charges of migrant smuggling, causing a shipwreck and participating in a criminal organisation. They have denied any wrongdoing.

“This is a great victory for human rights in Greece,” Spyros Pantazis, one of their lawyers, told Reuters. “Nine innocent men are walking free. Finally, after a huge struggle and pain, justice has been served.”

Defence lawyers, some rights groups and witnesses have long disputed that the men were to blame.

Images of passengers packed on the vastly overcrowded Italy-bound vessel circled the world, prompting global outrage over whether the Hellenic coastguard – first alerted to the ship after it ran into engine trouble about 15 hours before it capsized – could have done more to prevent the disaster.

Victims who had boarded the boat in Libya included Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian people. It soon emerged that women and children – of the survivors, all were adult males and boys – had been locked in the hold of the boat. The ship sank in one of the deepest areas of the Mediterranean.

Anti-fascist and leftist groups staged a protest outside the courthouse on Tuesday to denounce Europe’s migration policies and deplore what they have described as a “state cover-up”. Before the start of the trial, there was a skirmish between riot police and the protesters.

Reuters contributed to this report.