{"id":22786,"date":"2025-05-23T14:21:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T11:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/?p=22786"},"modified":"2025-05-23T15:18:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:18:46","slug":"pylos-shipwreck-criminal-prosecution-for-felonies-to-17-members-of-the-coast-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/pylos-shipwreck-criminal-prosecution-for-felonies-to-17-members-of-the-coast-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Pylos Shipwreck: Criminal prosecution for felonies against 17 members of the Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Pylos Shipwreck: Criminal prosecution for felonies against 17 members of the Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Joint Press Release by lawyers and organisations representing the survivors of the Pylos shipwreck:<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

PYLOS SHIPWRECK: CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR FELONIES AGAINST 17 MEMBERS OF THE HELLENIC COAST GUARD, INCLUDING SENIOR OFFICERS OF ITS LEADERSHIP<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

23\/5\/2025<\/p>\n

The lawyers representing the survivors and victims of the shipwreck of the fishing vessel \u201cAdriana\u201d, which occurred west off Pylos on 14 June 2023, have been informed of the completion of the preliminary investigation conducted by the competent Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court, and the criminal prosecution and referral to main investigation on felony charges against 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership.<\/b> Specifically:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A criminal prosecution has been initiated and they have been referred for <\/span>main investigation<\/b> by the competent Prosecutor of the Naval Court for the following felony offenses:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The <\/span>captain <\/b>of the Hellenic Coast Guard vessel PPLS 920, who was involved in the shipwreck off Pylos on 13-14\/6\/2023, on the charge of: a) <\/span>causing a shipwreck<\/b> that could have endangered human life and resulted to the death of a big number of individuals (at least 82) [Article 277 para. 1 (b) and (d) of the Penal Code] b) <\/span>Dangerous interference of maritime transport<\/b> by disrupting the safe navigation of vessels, which could have endangered human life and resulted to the death of others (at least 82) (Article 291 para. 1 (f), (bb), and (dd) of the Penal Code). c) <\/span>Failure to provide assistance by the captain of a vessel<\/b> (Article 122 of the Naval Penal Code).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The <\/span>crew <\/b>of the HCG vessel PPLS 920, on the charge of <\/span>simple complicity<\/b> in the aforementioned acts (a) and (b) committed by the captain.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Furthermore, all of the above, as well as the <\/span>then-Chief of the Hellenic Coast Guard<\/b>, the Supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, and the two Navigation Safety Officers on duty that day, on the charges of <\/span>exposing others to danger<\/b>, despite their legal obligation to rescue them, thereby leaving them in a helpless state, resulting to the death of at least 82 individuals (Article 306 para. 1, 2(b) of the Penal Code).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    According to the Order of the same competent Prosecutor, criminal prosecution was not initiated, and the case was archived with respect to four other officers of the Hellenic Coast Guard, despite their presence in the operations room and their strategic involvement in the handling of the incident, as the Prosecutor deemed them not legally competent at that time regarding the responsibility for the operation and actions of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

    We, the lawyers representing the survivors and victims of the Pylos shipwreck, express our satisfaction for the <\/span>criminal prosecution<\/b> and the referral for a <\/span>main investigation<\/b> on felony charges<\/b>, including <\/span>causing a shipwreck<\/b> and <\/span>exposing individuals to mortal danger<\/b> resulting to the death of hundreds of people, charges involving senior operational officers of the Hellenic Coast Guard.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The victims and their relatives will <\/span>file an appeal<\/b> before the Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals against the Prosecutor’s Order that archived the case with respect to the four officers, requesting the initiation of criminal prosecution against them as well, as they were involved in the handling of the incident on behalf of the competent bodies of the Hellenic Coast Guard \u2013 whose responsibilities had also been highlighted by the Ombudsman’s investigation <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> \u2013 including the current Chief of the Hellenic Coast Guard.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Nearly two years after the Pylos shipwreck, the criminal prosecution and the referral for main investigation on felony charges against 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership, represent a significant and obvious development in the path towards justice and accountability for the victims.<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

    \n\t\t\t\t
    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

    The organisations:<\/b><\/p>\n

    Network of Social Support for Refugees and Migrants<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Initiative of Lawyers and Jurists for the shipwreck of Pylos<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Refugee Support Aegean (RSA)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    Legal Centre Lesvos<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Joint Press Release by lawyers and organisations representing the survivors of the Pylos shipwreck: PYLOS SHIPWRECK: CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR FELONIES…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":22791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,8,6,5,137,254],"tags":[336,18,302,322],"class_list":{"0":"post-22786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deathatborder","8":"category-news-2","9":"category-press-releases","10":"category-publications","11":"category-topics","12":"category-violations-at-the-borders","13":"tag-2025-2","14":"tag-featured","15":"tag-pylos","16":"tag-shipwreck"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22786"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22804,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22786\/revisions\/22804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}