Since 15th October when his case finally came to trial, and 5 men were convicted of torture and sexual assault, the Greek media has variously diluted or wrongly reported the facts. This seems to be in line with the intimidation we suffered before the trial. I am printing the report from Friday in the Athens News. Note the use of the word "claim" in this article and "tried to assault" in the article from Kathimerini. The Athens News has a longer letter from us reprinted on Indy News before, but has so far failed to publish it.

Migrant-beating trial ends in suspended sentences

KATHY TZILIVAKIS
A NAVAL court in Hania, Crete, found five Greek coastguard officers guilty of physically and sexually abusing a group of migrants smuggled to the island four years ago. The officers, however, walked out of the court free men on October 16 after receiving suspended sentences.

The victims were part of a group of some 160 migrants on board a Turkish smuggling boat towed into Souda harbour by the coastguard on 30 May 2001. This is one of the very few times officers in Greece are convicted on charges of torture and abuse.

One of the officers, Stylianos Dandoulakis, was found guilt of sexually abusing a man in the toilet. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison suspended for five years. Constantine Vardakis, who was charged with abetting Dandoulakis, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

Ioannis Florakis, Ioannis Lefakis and Athanassios Moumtzis, were charged with physically abusing many of the migrants. All three received an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The migrants (119 men, 20 women and 25 children), mainly Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Iran, as well as Turks, Afghans, Pakistanis, Eritreans and Ethiopians, were held at the port town's old merchant marine academy. It was there that the six coastguard officers allegedly beat the migrants. Turkish migrant Necati Zontul says he was sexually assaulted.

According to human rights groups Amnesty International and the Greek Helsinki Monitor, all the adult male migrants said they were punched and kicked by the officers and that at least 10 of them were severely beaten and threatened.


ATHENS NEWS , 22/10/2004, page: A15
Article code: C13101A153


from Kathimerini
(Monday)
Five guilty of migrant abuse
A military court in the Cretan town of Hania has found five coast guard officers guilty of beating up a group of Kurdish illegal immigrants in heir custody three years ago.

But in a decision made public on Saturday, the court proceeded to give sspended sentences of 12 to 30 months' imprisonment to the five officers. A sixth defendant was cleared.

The 24 immigrants who suffered abuse were part of a group of 164 people held in coast guard installations in Souda, near Hania, after arriving in Greek waters on a battered vessel from Turkey in June 2001.

Among the witnesses was the former commander of the Souda coast guardstation, Diamantis Vassilagoudis, who said several of the detainees had complained to him of being beaten up by the men under his command. He also confirmed that two of the officers had tried to sexually assault one of the migrants.

In mid-September, the Defense Ministry admitted that army commandos on the remote eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonissi had violently abused a group of illegal immigrants who landed there. An investigation was ordered, but its results have still to be made public.

Large numbers of illegal immigrants reach Greek shores every year, mostly in rickety vessels that leave from Turkey.

Yesterday, coast guard officers rescued 34 illegal migrants from a sinking boat off the island of Leros in the Dodecanese, and were searching the seas off Lesvos for another migrant ship that was reported to be trouble in the area. The 34 migrants - 25 men, three women and six children - were located some 8 kilometers off Leros after a migrant couple told police in Athens that their daughter, who was on the boat, had contacted them by cellphone to seek help.

The second search operation was under way until late yesterday off Lesvos for traces of a vessel thought to be carrying illegal migrants. The search was hampered by high winds of up to 8 on the Beaufort scale.

The coast guard has arrested over 20 more illegal migrants on Lesvos and
in the southern Peloponnese over the past three days.