Last month, Legal Centre Lesvos (LCL) represented three clients before the Three-member Felony Appeal Court of North Aegean in Lesvos.
24 September 2025: Acquittal of M.J. on appeal
In the appeal trial of M.J., a 25-year-old man from Sudan, initially scheduled for 22 September but held on 24 September 2025, the Court acquitted our client of attempting to cause a shipwreck with endangerment to human life.
M.J. was arrested on 28 July 2023, when his migrant boat he was traveling on from Turkey to Greece, had been intercepted by the Hellenic Coast Guard. He was held in pre-trial detention for six months, between November 2024 and his first-instance trial in May 2025, where he was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, despite his co-defendants being acquitted. LCL subsequently took on his representation for the appeal.
During the appeal trial, the captain of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) vessel testified that people on board the migrant boat – including M.J. – had unscrewed the engine as the Coast Guard approached. However, after hearing testimony from M.J., the prosecutor concluded that there was no intent to cause a shipwreck, intent being a necessary element for conviction, and proposed acquittal. The Court agreed, finding that no attempt to cause a shipwreck had occurred, and overturned the first-instance decision, acquitting M.J. of the charge. Following the verdict, M.J. was released from prison.
After the trial, the lawyer of M.J., Vasilis Psomos said:
We are satisfied that our client was acquitted on appeal. There was never any ship wreck, and [M.J.] never attempted to cause one. He was wrongfully convicted and served almost a year in prison. Finally, common sense prevailed.
25 September 2025: Acquittals in First Instance Trial of S.A. , M.M., and A.M.
The following day, on 25 September 2025, three other defendants, S.A., from Palestine; M.M. from Eritrea; and A.M. from Sudan, were acquitted in a first-instance trial.
S.A. was accused of facilitating the unauthorized entry of 34 people (smuggling) with the aggravating circumstance of endangering lives. All three were also charged with attempting to cause a shipwreck, and illegal entry to Greece.
The defendants had been arrested two years earlier, in September 2023. During the two years awaiting trial, LCL clients S.A. and M.M. were both recognized as refugees but were unable to travel outside Greece due to the restrictive orders in place pending criminal proceedings and S.A. faced a potential prison sentence of up to 170 years for the smuggling charges.
During the trial, the captain of the coast guard vessel that had located their dinghy testified that he could not recognize who steered the migrant boat but that he was sure at the time of their arrest that he had seen S.A. driving and throwing the engine into the sea. While S.A. admitted he had thrown the engine into the sea, he explained that he only did so to reduce the weight of the dinghy, after it began taking on water through a hole.
The coast guard witness testified that the hole was in the front of the boat, and that there was no video footage of the incident. However, LCL lawyers presented video and photographic evidence – filmed by the coast guard – clearly showing that the hole was located at the back of the dinghy, undermining the credibility of the coast guard’s testimony.
Despite the prosecution’s proposal that the defendants be found guilty, the Court acquitted all three of attempting to cause a shipwreck, acquitting S.A. of smuggling, and acquitting S.A. and M.M. of illegal entry since they presented to the court evidence that they are recognized refugees. Only A.M. from Sudan, who was absent from the trial and not represented by a lawyer, was convicted for illegal entry and received a three months suspended sentence, however, he was also acquitted of the more serious felony charge of attempting to cause a shipwreck.
S.A., a recognized refugee from Palestine, should never have been charged with smuggling in the first place, since Article 3 of the Greek Migration Code (Law 5038/2023) excludes asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection from prosecution for unauthorized transfer of migrants. Despite this clear exemption clause, the Court refrained from responding directly to the objection made by the LCL lawyers during the hearing.
Following the acquittal, Vicky Aggelidou, one of the representing LCL lawyers stated:
Every once in a while, the Court upholds the law and recognizes that it must acquit if there is no evidence of a crime being committed. It is only regrettable that this decision comes two years late.