Reporting from Chios: Nektaria Psaraki

According to information obtained by The Press Project, the investigating judge proceeded to detain the Moroccan refugee after a full day of witness examinations, including survivors of the shipwreck and Coast Guard officers. Every survivor who testified stated that the Coast Guard rammed their inflatable boat and that they do not recognise the detainee as the operator.

One of the two witnesses who had initially identified the Moroccan man during the preliminary investigation fully recanted before the judge. She explained that at the time of her first statement she was in a severe psychological and physical condition and was unable to remember clearly. ‘I was shaken by the incident and not in a state to remember well,’ she said, adding that now she was not sure, even though he ‘looks like’ the person she had initially described.

The second survivor who had previously identified him did not testify before the investigating judge. He was discharged from hospital and transferred to Athens together with his children for their hospitalisation, in a decision taken before the judge could examine him.

Despite this, the Moroccan refugee was ordered into pretrial detention.

Coast Guard testimony and missing records

During their testimony, Coast Guard officers maintained their initial narrative, claiming that the refugee boat suddenly accelerated and rammed the patrol vessel. The captain stated that the Coast Guard vessel had approached at a distance of around 100 metres, moving parallel with bows facing land, and that the inflatable boat made a sharp manoeuvre to the left, colliding with the right bow of the Coast Guard vessel.

However, the investigating judge questioned the absence of both camera footage and entries in the ship’s logbook. Coast Guard officers testified that the vessel had only a thermal camera, which could record footage only if a recording card had been installed. No such recording was available.

Regarding the logbook, the captain admitted that he had not filled it in. He justified this by stating that he had injured his left hand and that it was painful to write, ‘even though I am right-handed’.

All Coast Guard officers testified that they did not see who was operating the refugee boat.

Survivors’ accounts contradict official version

In contrast to the Coast Guard’s claims, all survivors who testified described a sudden collision without warning. They stated that they did not hear a siren, shouts to stop, or see blue lights, and that the inflatable boat did not make any evasive manoeuvre.

One survivor described the moments before the collision: ‘When we were about one kilometre from the Greek shore, the driver reduced speed because we had children on board. We were going straight. On our left side I saw a light turn on and off and one or two seconds later the crash happened. They saw us and they hit us anyway.’

Asked whether there had been a chase, the same witness replied: ‘They were not chasing us. If we had heard anything, we would have stopped. We had children and women on the boat. We didn’t want to get killed.’

Survivors testified that only after the collision did the Coast Guard intervene to assist them.

All survivors also stated that they do not recognise the Moroccan detainee as the driver. One witness told the judge that she knew him from the safe house in Turkey, where traffickers held refugees before departure, and that he was not one of the smugglers but another passenger who had paid for his passage.

‘Imprisoned for the crime of others’

The investigating judge and the prosecutor heard the Moroccan refugee maintain his innocence, state that he was not the operator of the boat, that he had paid for his journey, and that the Coast Guard vessel rammed them, resulting in the deaths of 15 people. Despite this, they ordered his pretrial detention.

The Press Project was present outside the Chios courts during the proceedings. According to our information, the interrogation was extensive. The judge questioned the detainee in detail about his journey from Morocco to Turkey, his contacts with trafficking networks, payment methods, and the conditions of the crossing. She also examined his hands, noting that someone at the helm would likely have suffered injuries to the hands and chest in such a collision.

The Moroccan refugee was led away from the court with his hands bound behind his back, his head lowered, visibly distressed as cameras recorded his image. He now faces imprisonment, publicly stigmatised, for a crime that all survivor testimonies attribute to the actions of the Coast Guard.

Lawyers denounce procedural collapse

Outside the court, defence lawyer Dimitris Choulis criticised the decision, holding a USB stick and stating that it came from another case involving a Coast Guard ramming. ‘If anyone really wants to show how these practices are carried out, here it is,’ he said, referring to video footage he claimed the investigating judge had seen.

Defence lawyer Alexis Georgoulis stated that ‘at least six people at the investigative stage do not recognise him as the perpetrator’, noting that one of the two initial identifying witnesses had recanted.

Choulis added that the case file was treated as complete even though the only remaining identifying witness had been removed from the island before testifying. ‘At nine in the morning they had already decided who the culprit was,’ he said.

He concluded: ‘Once again, those who caused the shipwreck according to all testimonies walk free, and one of their victims goes to prison. We saw it in Pylos. We see it every day. No matter how many innocent people we put in prison, people will continue to drown on our shores.’

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