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A criminal court on Greece’s island of Lesvos announced Monday that it would release within a month a Somali man sentenced to 142 years in prison for smuggling in 2021, amid appeals proceedings.
Mohammad Khanad Abdi, a 29-year-old Somali man who fled the country after being pursued by the terrorist group al-Shabaab, was sentenced to 142 years in prison in May 2021. A woman drowned while traveling at sea.
Under Greek law (4251-Article 30), which came into force in 2014, migrants accused of driving a refugee vessel are sentenced to a minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment, even if they are proven not to be smugglers. You can And he wasn’t paid to cross.
The law also provides for 15 years’ imprisonment for those who die while traveling, and 8 years’ imprisonment for each passenger transported.
On December 1, 2020, Mohammad Hanad Abdi boarded a boat with 33 other people. After 20 minutes, the engine stopped. Before abandoning them, the smugglers pointed their guns at Muhammad and ordered him to guide the boat in Turkish.
On Monday, a court significantly reduced his sentence to eight years in prison. Due to his “good behavior”, “almost a year and a half of general work” and the fact that he has already served two and a half years in prison, he will be released within a month, explains one of his lawyers, Alexandros Jorgoulis.
Two Afghans, Akif Razouli and Amir Zahiri, who were sentenced to 50 years in prison last month, were released on appeal in similar cases.
“We must continue to mobilize on this issue. Thousands of migrants currently in Greek prisons have been accused of being smugglers,” Stelios Kourogulou, a left-wing Greek MEP who attended the hearing, said. and has been convicted,” he said.
This is “the second most important category of prisoners in Greece”, according to the MEP, which launched an information campaign with colleagues in the European Parliament.
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