As Ahmed Hana was leaving the Gaza Strip to seek, alongside his family, a few breaths of freedom, he could not have imagined the levels of injustice and violence awaiting him. Today he is in custody in Korydallos prison, facing the charges of causing a shipwreck and illegal transportation of third-country nationals.
Ahmed had sought a living for three and a half years in Turkey, but the clandestine status in which he was forced to live made living difficult. He couldn’t provide even the basics for his family. He had to make the difficult decision to leave them behind and seek opportunities in Europe. Other fellow nationals who had attempted the same journey in the past warned him of the dangers involved, but he had no other choice.
Since March 2024, he had tried to cross to the Greek islands three times, but on every occasion he had fallen victim to illegal pushbacks by the Hellenic Coast Guard. Last month, Greece was condemned for these pushbacks, an illicit form of repatriation, by the European Court of Human Rights, which acknowledged that the Greek security forces use them systematically.
The day of 5 September, his fourth crossing, will be forever etched in Ahmed’s mind. Determined to succeed this time, he travelled with his co-passengers in the traffickers’ car from Izmir, where they were staying, to the coastline opposite Lesvos island. It was unclear how many people boarded the boat with him. He found himself sitting among men and women, elderly people, and infants in the arms of their parents. The order from the traffickers was clear. They were all to stay crouched down, under a plastic cover that was spread over them. Anyone who disobeyed this order would be thrown into the sea. After about 40 minutes, while they were quite close to the beaches of Lesvos, a Coast Guard boat appeared and began chasing them. The Coast Guard officers opened fire. The passengers shouted and cried, while some of them lifted the children into the air, showing them to the Coast Guard crew and hoping they would spare them. Some, including the driver of the boat, jumped into the water in an attempt to swim to shore and escape. The boat continued uncontrollably until Ahmed jumped to take the wheel, trying to turn off the throttle. By now the Coast Guard boat had caught up with them, turned, and rammed them. The tubes of the small inflatable boat burst and suddenly everyone was in the sea, men, women and children.
Ahmed, wearing the inner tube of a car tyre around his waist instead of a life jacket, tried to help the others climb aboard the Coast Guard boat, which was now trying to rescue them. But when he took his turn to board, three masked crew members began beating him with batons and an iron pipe. They were also beating the other men who had boarded the boat, but for some reason he couldn’t then understand, they were focused on him. Despite his screams, they did not stop beating him, to the point that blood was pouring from his body and his face was disfigured. The 25 people who were picked up from the sea were transferred to two other Coast Guard boats, which took them to the port of Mytilene for legal procedures, while Ahmed, clearly in a bad condition, was taken to the hospital for first aid. With them, two other people were taken to the Registration and Identification Centre of Mavrovouni; they had been apprehended by the Greek police on the island’s coast and admitted to being onboard with the other passengers.
In a common practice for migrants who fall victim to the violence of the Coast Guard, Ahmed was charged as a “trafficker”, accused of causing the shipwreck by trying to ram the much larger Coast Guard boat. While suffering serious injuries from the collision of the boats, he was accused of resisting arrest by using violence towards the Coast Guard crew. The interrogator at the Court of First Instance of Mytilene ignored the testimonies of the other passengers who had confirmed Ahmed’s story in court, including the criminal actions of the crew of vessel PLS 1081. Ahmed was ordered into pre-trial detention, and was taken to Korydallos prison.
Ahmed’s defence was undertaken by the Legal Centre Lesvos, an NGO that is active in the Aegean islands against the criminalisation of migrants, and by the lawyer Vicky Angelidou. When we contacted the organisation, they raised serious questions about the credibility of port officials’ statements and the entire interrogation process that led to Ahmed’s arrest and detention. Some of the key questions raised are:
- While it is stated by all the witnesses – passengers of the migrant boat – that the crew members of the PLS 1081 fired at them, why is it not mentioned anywhere in the testimonies and reports of the Coast Guard officials?
- How is it that the Coast Guard officials’ statements are identical, and there are even entire sentences that are the same, word for word?
- How is it that the migrant boat, carrying at least 27 people and much smaller than the PLS 1081, tried to ram them? And if that happened, how is it possible that the strike on the PLS 1081 boat hit its front section? It is worth noting here that the PLS 1081, added to the Coast Guard fleet only in June 2024, is a state-of-the-art Viking Hellas, Fast Patrol Craft of roughly 12 meters. It is equipped with the latest generation of electronic systems, with a 880HP engine, which allows it to reach very high speeds, much higher than those of the inflatable dinghies that migrants usually use to reach to the Aegean islands.
- What about the passengers’ belongings? The testimonies of Ahmed and another witness mention that they had money and other valuables, which were seized after they were collected from the sea. But in the seizure reports, there is no mention of any item or amount of money, apart from a telephone in Ahmed’s possession. Those familiar with migrant crossings confirm that this is not normal, since in addition to the sums of money they carry trying to reach the islands, to deal with any potential emergency, all of them possess at least a mobile phone to communicate with their relatives.
- How is it that, while even according to the testimonies of the Coast Guard officials Ahmed was injured at sea by the collision, he violently resisted arrest?
- Finally – and this question is repeatedly raised in incidents of collision between migrant boats and those of the Hellenic Coast Guard – where are the videos from the Coast Guard boat? The vessel, which was procured by the Hellenic Coast Guard, co-funded by the European Union, has, as mentioned earlier, state-of-the-art electronic systems, including a high-definition camera. Among the obligations of the Hellenic Coast Guard is the recording of their operations. How is it possible that this crucial evidence has once again disappeared?
Human rights organisations have repeatedly expressed concerns about the conduct of interrogation and trial proceedings in cases involving migrants and victims of state violence. At the same time, operations to stop migrant boats by using live ammunition or ramming the boats are becoming increasingly frequent, and have often led to the tragic deaths of dozens of people, the most recent example being the death of eight migrants off the coast of Rhodes, who were rammed by a Coast Guard vessel and dismembered in its propellers. The geographical scope of the use of these methods, and the immunity granted to the members of the security forces involved in these incidents, suggest that these are not unfortunate and isolated incidents, but are instead the Coast Guard’s modus operandi.
The trial of Ahmed Hana will take place on Friday 6 February at the North Aegean Criminal Court of Appeal in Mytilene.