𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐊.𝐒. On Friday 23 April 2021, in a trial that lasted less than 4 hours, the Mytiline Court convicted K.S., a young man from Syria, of illegal entry & facilitating illegal entry and sentenced him to 52 years and a fine of €242, 000. #Lesvos

This was despite arguments made by Legal Centre Lesvos lawyers regarding numerous procedural irregularities, the lack of convincing evidence against him, and demonstrable mitigating circumstances.

This scandalous sentence follows state violence inflicted upon K.S. and his family in Syria, Turkey & now Greece. After being shot in Syria, K.S. & family fled to Turkey, where he was imprisoned & tortured after resisting the draft to join Turkish military operations in Libya...

Since fleeing to Greece, K.S. has been subject to numerous violations of international law. This includes the initial denial of K.S. and his family's access to asylum procedures, following Greece's illegal suspension of that right on 1 March 2020.

...which occurred in the context of increased violence towards migrants and the instrumentalisation of people, like K.S. and his family, as bargaining chips to serve the geopolitical interests of Greece, the EU, and Turkey.

This was testified to by a defense witness from @CPTLesvos - read more here: https://cpt.org/cptnet/2021/04/26/scandalous-sentencing-syrian-refugee-lesvos-trial-observers-strongly-criticise?fbclid=IwAR0qxnAEJNnN8sSh-5a5wDUq4NzHKnP4ayD5IWKytFYsc4gXZltKUk2ocUQ

Upon K.S. and his family's arrival to the island of #Chios, K.S. was arrested and accused of having driven the dinghy upon which they had arrived. This formed the basis for the aforementioned criminal charges brought against him.

By the time of his trial, K.S. had not seen his wife or three young children for over 14 months. He had spent over a year of his incarceration in #Korydallos Prison, Greece's largest penitentiary.

There were numerous inconsistencies in the criminal procedure that lead to K.S.’s unjust conviction. In both the preliminary hearing and the main interrogation, K.S. - who speaks only Arabic - was provided a Farsi interpreter, and...

...despite objections made by K.S.’s lawyers, the Court nonetheless decided to take these supposed testimonies of K.S. into consideration.

In addition, initial list of persons on the dinghy - used to charge K.S. - was provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG). However, a different list, of unknown provenance, that contained different names and a larger number of people was ultimately used in Court to convict him.

This is particularly important, given K.S.' 52 year sentence and €242, 000 fine were determined by the no. of persons alleged to be on board the dinghy (10 yrs/€200, 000 for facilitating illegal entry, + 1 yr and €1, 000 for each person on board).

The trial hinged upon the testimony of a HCG officer, who claimed to recognize K.S. and alleged that the dinghy, upon which K.S. was travelling, had tried to ram the HCG’s vessel – impossible, as the dinghy was carrying approx. 40 people and had a motor capacity for max. 10.

The officer further testified that he had witnessed K.S. damaging the dinghy upon which he was travelling and trying to damage the HCG vessel, before swimming towards it. ** However, he did not say, at any point, that he saw K.S. driving the boat. **

It is particularly galling that a HCG officer should accuse K.S. of damaging a migrant dinghy and attacking the HCG, given the HCG themselves are consistently documented as perpetrators of this exact kind of violence in Aegean Sea collective expulsions: https://legalcentrelesvos.org/2021/02/01/crimesagainstumanityintheaegean/?fbclid=IwAR0ChMxQlx61rEGVq73SC4qTT0AgMM2W1Y_-nEEgcm5JdqSQd3ZvFGJ9LpA

No evidence was presented at trial that supported K.S.’ conviction for facilitating illegal entry. The HCG witness did not testify that K.S. had been driving the boat, or that he was in any way involved in otherwise facilitating migrants’ illegal entry to Greece.

In addition, K.S.' conviction for illegal entry flagrantly violates Art 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits Greece and others criminalising refugees "on account of their illegal entry or presence." Seeking asylum is not a crime - prosecuting those who do it, is!

Despite that, in a 6-1 decision, K.S. was found guilty of facilitating illegal entry, and illegal entry into Greece. He could be eligible for early release after 7 further years in prison. Even then, K.S. will be incarcerated for the remainder of his three young sons’ childhood.

The gross miscarriage of justice inflicted upon K.S. is not the first of its kind. Since 2014, @CPTLesvos, Deportation Monitoring Aegean & @BorderlineEurop have documented the systemic punishment of migrants accused of the same crimes as K.S.: https://refugeeobservatory.aegean.gr/en/incarcerating-marginalized-fight-against-alleged-%E2%80%BAsmugglers%E2%80%B9-greek-hotspot-islands#:~:text=Search-,Incarcerating%20the%20Marginalized%3A%20The%20Fight%20Against%20Alleged%20%E2%80%BASmugglers%E2%80%B9,on%20the%20Greek%20Hotspot%20Islands&text=The%20following%20report%20outlines%20the,external%20border%20in%20the%20Aegean.

They observed: “While #smuggling accusations against European sea rescuers...gain a lot of media attention, which can lead to...courts eventually deciding to drop charges, the everyday practice of incarcerating non-Europeans on the #Greek islands goes almost unnoticed.”

LCL lawyers have appealed K.S.’s conviction & will continue to fight for his release. With comrades in Lesvos and internationally, we will continue to denounce the criminalisation of migrants & stand in solidarity with everyone facing Europe’s punitive border regime.

Full statement in English & Ελληνικά: http://legalcentrelesvos.org/2021/05/10/justice-for-k-s/?preview=true. /END THREAD.