An imprisoned Afghan refugee wrongfully accused of smuggling people into Greece has been told he can walk free in a trial that activists hope will set a precedent for thousands of others in similar situations.
After a marathon day of proceedings, an appeals court sitting on the Aegean island of Lesbos ruled that Akif Rasuli could be released more than two years after he began serving a 50-year sentence for the crime of “facilitating the illegal entry” of undocumented migrants into the country. The three-member tribunal overturned the conviction citing lack of evidence.
“I always said I was innocent and they finally believed me,” an emotional Rasuli said after the verdict late Thursday. “I am very happy, very but right now my thoughts are with all the others, so many people like me, who are also in prison in Greece.”
Amir Zahiri, an Afghan also serving a 50-year jail term for the same offence, who had sat handcuffed to Rasuli at the back of the court for nearly seven hours before being called to the bench, saw his sentence reduced to eight years although he, too, is expected to be allowed to walk free imminently.
The men, both in their 20s, had been on the same vessel when it was abandoned by smugglers in September 2020 as it crossed the Aegean from Turkey. Amir, however, had been travelling with his young daughter and heavily pregnant wife.
MEPS and human rights lawyers who had flown in to Lesbos to attend the hearing described the verdicts as a “first victory” in the battle to address the plight of asylum seekers being falsely accused of human smuggling. Fair trial concerns have increasingly been voiced.
“We will be raising this case as an example of what is happening to thousands of other innocent migrants cruelly languishing in prison,” said Clare Daly, an Irish MEP with the Independents 4 Change party. “And we will use it to highlight the ludicrous situation that is prevailing in Greece as a result of the manner in which the EU Facilitators package [of directives] is being enacted.”
Although the legislation had been drafted to deal with “the insidious practice of smuggling”, in Greece, Daly said, it was frequently misinterpreted by law enforcers randomly singling out migrant “offenders” on boats deserted by real smugglers.
“This ambiguity, long highlighted by the European parliament, cannot continue. The [EU] commission cannot continue to stand idly by while Greece implements it in this way.”
The short but often perilous sea crossing from Turkey has long been a popular entry point into Europe for people fleeing war, poverty and persecution in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In 2014, shortly before an estimated 870,000 Syrians landed on the Aegean isles en route to Europe, Athens sought to crack down on human smuggling rings along the Turkish coast with draconian legislation. People smugglers were handed unprecedentedly harsh sentences, with penalties ranging from 10 years for each smuggled person on board to life imprisonment if deaths occurred on the journey.
More than 20% of the Mediterranean nation’s prison population has either been convicted or charged with human smuggling, according to statistics recently published by the pro-government Kathimerini newspaper.
“If, like Amir, you admit even touching the helm of a boat, even if it’s abandoned by smugglers, the sentence is very tough,” said Alexandros Georgoulis, a lawyer who specialises in assisting refugees and had represented Zahiri. “It’s so unfair when all you have done is try to help your family and it is very probable that others [passengers not singled out] have been at the helm too. But the law, as it stands, is problematic and that is why our jails now are so full of these people.”
Incidents of asylum seekers being convicted of piloting boats across the Aegean have risen noticeably in recent years.
“The criminalisation of migrants in these cases is an extension of the same violent border policies that we have seen in the practice of pushbacks,” said Lorraine Leete, a US lawyer coordinating the Legal Centre Lesvos, referring to the forcible eviction of asylum seekers before they can lodge claims. “These two men are never going to get back the years they have spent in prison. Their entire lives will be affected by this miscarriage of justice. We hope this judgment will serve as an example to prevent such injustices occurring in the future.”
In January, Hanad Abdi Mohammad, a Somali currently incarcerated on the adjacent island of Chios, will appeal his staggering 146-year sentence in what campaigners hope will shine further light on the issue.
The 29-year-old, who had also sought to reach Greece in a dinghy from Turkey, maintains he was forced by a smuggler at the point of a gun “to drive” the vessel before it nearly capsized and two of its passengers drowned. Despite the loss of life the Somali is credited with helping save 33 other migrants on board.
“International solidarity for these people must not wane,” said Stelios Kouloglou, an MEP with the main opposition leftist Syriza who had flown to Lesbos to testify before the court. “Thousands of refugees have been unjustly handed what amount to extermination sentences because they clearly have not been given fair trials. Europe should be ashamed at the way its laws are being implemented and interpreted by Greece.”
