AYS Daily Digest 13/05/2021: Somali father sentenced to 146 years in prison for trying to save dozens of lives off Lesvos
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Migration, Digest, Greece, Search And Rescue, Refugees

AYS Daily Digest 13/05/2021: Somali father sentenced to 146 years in prison for trying to save dozens of lives off Lesvos

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FEATURE — The price of saving lives? Two lifetimes in prison

Photo: Borderline Europe

The Greek justice system and the EU’s harsh border policies have destroyed another life this week: not by drowning, but with a sentence of 146 years in a Greek prison for trying to save 33 lives off the coast of Lesvos last December.

While the criminalization of European sea rescuers such as Carola Rackete receives a good deal of media attention, “the everyday practice of incarcerating non-Europeans on the Greek islands goes almost unnoticed,” Borderline Europe wrote in a press release on Wednesday. “However, it is they who constitute the majority of those being arrested and imprisoned on allegations of ‘smuggling’ and ‘aiding illegal immigration’.”

This Thursday, May 13, 27-year-old Mohamad H., a father of four children, stood trial in Mytilene, Lesvos. His crime? Steering a rubber boat, of which he himself was also a passenger, through treacherous waters off the coast of Greece in an effort to avoid a shipwreck and apply for asylum in Europe. For this, Mohamad faced two life sentences and a further ten years imprisonment for each passenger aboard.

The journalist Daphne Tolis wrote on Twitter that the young father was sentenced to 146 years in prison in a Mytilene courtroom yesterday:

On December 2, 2020, Mohamad and 33 other people, including three children, left Turkey for Greece in a rubber boat. In the middle of the Aegean, the boat went into distress, and Mohamad, who had no prior boating experience, took the helm and tried to steer the craft to shore. (The other passengers confirmed that Mohamad tried to save their lives.)

Unfortunately, Mohamad’s efforts were not enough. The boat capsized close to the island of Lesvos and two young women lost their lives. The survivors were brought to the port of Mytilene, where Mohamad was immediately arrested for driving the boat and later charged with the “illegal transportation of third-country nationals into Greek territory” and endangering the lives of everyone on board the rubber boat. Since then, he has been held in a prison on the island of Chios to await trial.

Borderline Europe wrote in a press release:

We stand in solidarity with Mohamad H. who is clearly being used as a scapegoat to divert attention from the responsibility that the EU and its ever-increasing closure of borders carries for these deaths. Instead of being threatened with life in prison, Mohamad H. should receive the care he needs after suffering such a traumatic experience. Instead of being threatened with life in prison, Mohamad H. should be thanked and celebrated for trying to save the life of 33 people.

Under Greek law, any person who drives a vehicle across the Greek border carrying people seeking international protection is considered a smuggler. Thus, many other asylum-seekers before Mohamad H. have been arrested, charged and found guilty of such crimes. Their trials, however, are hardly fair and just. The proceedings last on average 38 minutes only, and lead to an average sentencing of 44 years and fines over 370,000 euro, according to Borderline.

“[I]t becomes absolutely clear that the accused tried to prevent the death of more people and his ‘driving’ the boat wasn’t a decision but a necessity. It’s time to start applying all of the Greek Law and not only the parts of it that help to criminalize asylum seekers,” Dimitris Choulis and Alexandros Georgouli, Mohamad’s lawyers, said.

Lena K. identified the hypocrisy best in a tweet following the sentencing: