Greek lawyers call for further investigation into 2023 deadly shipwreck

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek legal professionals representing the survivors and victims of a lethal 2023 shipwreck mentioned on Monday a naval court docket wanted to look at extra proof after a preliminary investigation did not make clear the case.

Tons of died on June 14, 2023, when an overcrowded fishing trawler, monitored by the Greek coastguard for a number of hours, capsized and sank in worldwide waters off the southwestern Greek coastal city of Pylos.

A neighborhood naval court docket, which opened a prison investigation final yr, has concluded a preliminary investigation and referred the case to a chief prosecutor, the legal professionals mentioned on Monday, including that they had reviewed the proof examined by the court docket up to now.

“The case file incorporates severe gaps and omissions,” they mentioned in a press release, including that the captain and the crew of the coastguard vessel monitoring the migrant ship had been summoned by the court docket, however not the coastguard officers supervising them.

Proof, together with the file of communications between the officers concerned within the operation, was not included within the case file, they added.

“The absence of any investigation into the obligations of the competent search and rescue our bodies and the management of the Greek coastguard is deafening,” they mentioned.

The chief prosecutor will determine if and the way the probe will progress.

Beneath Greek legislation, prosecutors usually are not allowed to touch upon ongoing investigations.

The vessel, which had set off from Libya, was carrying as much as 700 Pakistani, Syrian and Egyptian migrants sure for Italy. Solely 104 individuals have been rescued and 82 our bodies discovered.

Greece’s coastguard has denied any function within the sinking, which was one of many deadliest boat disasters within the Mediterranean Sea.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; enhancing by Barbara Lewis)