Athens, Greece – Four Afghan asylum seekers convicted of starting a fire that burned a sprawling Greek refugee camp to the ground are awaiting a court decision on their appeal trial.
All residents of Moria at the time, the defendants are now 18, 20, 20 and 23 years old. They were officially blamed in June 2021 for the fire that devastated the camp on the island of Lesbos in a trial that their lawyers said was filled with procedural issues. mistakes. They have been held in two different prisons in mainland Greece since 2020.
The decision is expected this week in an appeals court in Lesbos.
Two other Afghans who were also accused of starting the fire were registered as minors at the time and were consequently tried separately. The younger couple lost their attractiveness last year.
In June 2021, the four were found guilty of “arson with danger to human life” by the mixed jury court of Chios and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
According to his lawyers, the evidence presented was flimsy: just a written testimony to the police.
The witness, another resident of the camp, confirmed the defendants' identities through “five specific photographs” of them, the lawyers said.
“None of the other prosecution witnesses, whether police officers or firefighters, were able to identify the defendants, although they were eyewitnesses to the fire,” said a statement from the Lesbos Legal Center, which represents those awaiting the appeal decision this week. . at the time of his first trial in 2021.
Lesvos was one of the main entry points for asylum seekers into Europe during the years of the 2015-16 “refugee crisis” and many people, upon arrival, were taken to the Moria camp for processing.
When the infamous site caught fire in September 2020, it made headlines around the world as aid groups already described it as “hell on earth”.
It was known for its squalid and overcrowded conditions. At its peak, the camp held nearly 20,000 people in a space originally designed for approximately 3,000. Residents took shelter in tents and shacks in overflowing areas around the main camp.
The fire, first detected late on September 8 four years ago, quickly spread through the olive groves on the hill on which the camp was built.
Thanasis Voulgarakis, a human rights activist in Lesvos, ran to the field the night it caught fire.
“Everything was on fire, there was literally fire everywhere,” he said. “The whole night it was like this and people were trying to help other people out, the bins and plastic in the shops were burning all night and there was panic, but at least no one was hurt, it was a miracle.”
The next morning the fire was still burning. Black smoke was rising from the camp, turning into a pile of twisted metal and plastic. The flames left behind charred containers and tents, and many of the roads were still littered with the belongings of people they had had to abandon to escape the inferno. The days following the fire resulted in chaotic scenes, as thousands of people were left homeless on the streets of Lesbos as authorities prepared a new “temporary” camp at a nearby site that is still in use.
Activists and human rights groups criticized European migration policies for such a large containment of people.
Notis Mitarachi, the then Greek Migration Minister, said that “the Moria arsonists have been arrested [and] everyone's safety is guaranteed,” although no trial has yet taken place.
Lawyers representing the four have said the latest trial “ignored basic procedural and substantive safeguards.”
They noted that the singular witness did not appear in court and therefore could not be questioned. His testimony alleges that the defendants set fire to a specific area of the Moria camp on a specific day. His lawyers claim, however, that, according to local firefighters, that part of the field did not burn on that particular day. Attorneys have alleged a litany of other issues in the 2021 trial, including “erroneous or incomplete interpretations.”
Forensic Architecture and Forensis, investigative agencies that the defendants' lawyers commissioned to investigate the case, published an analysis of the Moria fire in 2023 after examining hundreds of videos, images, testimonies and official reports to reconstruct the events of the fire. evening.
They noted that many fires have occurred over the years, especially in September, when “the ground is driest in this Mediterranean region.”
“The dry conditions, combined with the precariousness and density resulting from the policies imposed by the Greek and EU authorities, led to a sharp increase in large fires each year around this time,” they said. “Our analysis reveals significant inconsistencies in the testimony of the key witness and casts further doubt on the evidence on which the young asylum seekers' trial was based.”
Vicky Aggelidou, one of the lawyers at the Lesvos Legal Center, said that in the 2021 trial, journalists and legal observers were prohibited from entering the court under the pretext of COVID-19 restrictions.
“If journalists and the public had not been banned from entering the courtroom during the first trial, they would have witnessed the ridiculous show trial that led to the conviction of four of the Moria 6, without any credible evidence,” he said. to Al Jazeera. “We have been waiting for almost three and a half years to have a proper and fair trial in which the defense's arguments and evidence are truly considered by the court, during which time the four remained in prison. “While the courts may prefer to sweep this case under the ashes of Moria, we will not stop fighting for the freedom of the Moria 6.”
“It is Greek and European migration policies that should be judged, not these six young Afghans.”
