London: An investigation by the BBC has discovered proof that Greek coast guard personnel put pressure on the survivors of a migrant boat disaster last month that claimed up to 600 lives to identify nine Egyptians on board as traffickers.
The nine men have been accused of manslaughter and people smuggling and were taken into custody a few days after the boat capsized in the Mediterranean on June 14 off the coast of Pylos, Greece.
However, video evidence raises questions about the coast guard's actions, raising doubts about the coast guard's official account of the events leading up to the boat's sinking.
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In the meantime, court records obtained by the BBC offer proof in support of claims made by survivors that some had their testimonies changed while others were coerced by Greek authorities.
The BBC reported that its evidence revealed "serious discrepancies between survivors' witness statements taken by the coastguards, and the in-person evidence later presented to a judge." It was also mentioned that a translator had approached BBC reporters to reveal that the coast guard had intimidated survivors of a boat sinking the previous year.
The business claimed to have spoken with two survivors of the tragedy, both of whom are now living in Athens, who claimed the boat sank after the coast guard fastened a rope to tow it.
Musaab, one of the men, said: "They attached a rope from the left. As we attempted to balance our boat, everyone shifted to the right side. Our boat flipped as a result of the Greek ship leaving quickly. They continued to drag it for a good distance.
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After it sank, they claimed that survivors were left in the water for as long as two hours before being rescued. After being transported to Kalamata, they claim that authorities there ordered them to "shut up" about what had caused the disaster.
When the Greek coast guard was cited as the culprit, the second man, Ahmad, told the BBC: "The official in charge of the questioning asked the interpreter to tell the interviewee to stop talking."
He continued by saying that authorities had told him and the other survivors to be grateful they had been saved and that they had been told: "You have survived death! Quit bringing up the incident! Don't enquire further about it!"
They also expressed concern that if they spoke out, they would be detained and charged with trafficking like the Egyptians.
Ahmad, whose brother was also on board and is still missing, said, "If there was a fair system in place, we would help with this case."
The BBC claimed to have also seen proof of five additional survivors' oral testimony given in court, which was different from their initial written statements. According to the BBC, none of the initial submissions mentioned the coast guard towing the boat. One of the witness accounts it used at the time suggested the boat capsized "suddenly" as the coast guard was on the way to assist.
However, the same witness testified in court that the Greek ship tied a rope to the front of our ship and started to slowly pull us, but the rope broke. We initially felt like we were being pulled when they tied it up again, then our ship keeled over. We shouted in English, 'Stop!' as the Greek ship accelerated.
The Hellenic Coast Guard has since acknowledged that, despite initially denying it attempted to tow the boat with a rope, it did use one in an effort to secure and board the boat in order to assess the situation.
The nine Egyptians who were arrested, according to the Greek authorities, were recognised as traffickers by other survivors.
The two men in Athens, Ahmad and Musaab, claimed to the BBC that the coast guard had instructed some passengers to place the blame on them. Musaab added: "They were imprisoned and were wrongly accused by the Greek authorities as an attempt to cover their crime."
A Kalamata-based translator named Farzin Khavand said the incident echoed one from the previous year, when two Iranian men were accused of smuggling 32 people from Turkiye to Greece.
The migrants on board, all of whom were Iranians and Afghans, told Khavand, a Farsi speaker who was involved in the coast guard investigation into what occurred, that two Arabic-speaking men had abandoned the ship after its engine blew up while it was travelling to Greece.
The two Iranians who were later charged with being traffickers had taken turns steering the ship to safety at that point.
According to Khavand, "They (the two Iranians) were severely traumatised." "They kept telling me that before they left for Turkey, they had never even seen an ocean. The coast guard kept telling them that they were the captain, but they insisted that they knew nothing about the boat. Even swimming is beyond us.
Khavand claimed that he accurately relayed the testimonies to the coast guard, but later discovered that the transcripts of his interviews had been altered. Additionally, he was informed by other survivors that some of the migrants had been "leant on" to alter their accounts by the coast guard and had been threatened with imprisonment or deportation if they did not.
He added that Sayeed, one of the accused Iranians, was travelling at the time with his 6-year-old son. The case against him and his fellow Iranian fell apart, but the coast guard wouldn't give him back the $1,676 ($1,500) it had taken from him.
According to Khavand, "the scene ended with me thinking I don't want to do this again because they (the Greek authorities) were not trying to get to the bottom of the truth," according to a BBC report. "They were trying to pick out a couple of guys and accuse them of being people smugglers."
Chrysanthi Kaouni, a local attorney, reported seeing 10 recent cases brought against individuals for human trafficking in Greece, which concerned her.
She told the BBC: "My worries are about the translations, the way evidence is gathered, and — later on — the defendants' ability to challenge this evidence.
"I don't think there are enough safeguards in accordance with international law because of these three reasons, and in the end, I don't think justice is done," the speaker said.
According to a study by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, the average trial for migrants accused of people-smuggling in Greece lasted just 37 minutes and involved 81 cases involving 95 people between 2020 and 2023. The BBC cited this study.
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The verdicts were frequently based on the testimony of a single police or coast guard officer, and the average sentence for those found guilty of the crime was 46 years in prison. In more than 75% of cases, the accused failed to show up in court.
The BBC reported that the Greek government and the Hellenic Coast Guard both declined to comment on its inquiry.