On 8 July 2024, after five hearings, the first instance trial of the case of the racist pogrom against refugees and migrants that took place on 22 April 2018 at Sappho Square in Mytilene was concluded. Of the 26 perpetrators, 21 were convicted. The judges acknowledged the racist motive and no mitigating circumstances were recognized. The convicted persons showed no sign of remorse and reiterated their racist views in the courtroom and the court sentenced them with one to six years with a three-year suspension and redeemable at 5 euros per day. According to some of the defence lawyers, the defendants will appeal the decision.
It is important to stress that all the defendants in the courtroom during the hearings were in a very relaxed mood among themselves, without paying much attention to the process itself. During their plea, they all stated that all the accusations are untrue, that they were in the square with their families, as they used to do every Sunday, and that they then stood up clearly to see what was going on, out of curiosity. What was unprecedented though, was that the majority of them, together with the defence witnesses that some of them had brought, stressed to the judges that during the so-called refugee crisis and afterwards, their main concern was to support the refugees and migrants that were arriving on the island.
From the first hearing, there were individuals, institutions and organizations recording the proceedings inside the courtroom, who had to first face pressure from the prosecutor regarding their presence. They were required to answer repeated questions about their work in the courtroom, leading to the prohibition of the live reporting of the trial, after an amendment of the legislation, which was passed within the days of the hearings.
The night of the racist pogrom in Sappho Square will be remembered by many as the “night of the crystals.” Throughout the whole night, local residents were beating a crowd of migrants who were simply trying to protest their living conditions in the Moria detention centre and the huge delays in asylum procedures at the time.
These attacks were carried out with enormous tolerance by the police, without making any arrests of the attackers. On the contrary, early the next morning the Greek authorities arrested 120 of the protesting migrants and two Greek solidarity activists who had been trying to protect themselves all night from the attacks. A case was subsequently filed against them, but were eventually acquitted a year later.
In 2018, conditions in the Moria detention centre were outrageous, with migrants living in deplorable sanitary conditions, and with nothing to show that they could eventually escape from it. The only thing they asked for was to leave this island-prison created by the Greek and European authorities. They did this through peaceful protests in the central public square trying to highlight their struggle and their demands. As the migrants themselves said at the time, they had nothing to lose. Nothing could influence them for the worse.
Justice may have come to some extent, even belatedly, but the most important thing to understand is that such incidents must not happen again. We as CPT in Lesvos are against any such acts of violence and will stand by all migrants, and their struggle, fighting for better future.
