Four senior members of Greece’s coastguard, including its current commander, will face criminal prosecution over the 2023 Pylos migrant shipwreck, which left an estimated 650 people dead.
The Adriana, carrying migrants from Libya to Italy, sank off Pylos after coastguards allegedly made a failed towing attempt.
Greece has denied wrongdoing, but a prosecutor at the naval appeal court in Piraeus has now called for Vice Admiral Tryfon Kontizas and three other senior officers to stand trial for negligent manslaughter and failure to rescue.
Only 82 bodies were recovered, and survivors claim the coastguard’s actions caused the vessel to capsize. The case reopens months after lower courts had cleared the officers, following a legal challenge by victims’ families and survivors’ lawyers.
Greek officials insist the country respects human rights and note it has rescued more than 250,000 people at sea in the past decade.
Source: bbc.com
