K.A., who fled from Graza, reached the Greek island of Samos by boat on 22/09/23 to apply for asylum. Instead, after his arrival he was accused of transporting 35 “third-country nationals” without the right to enter Greek territory (“smuggling”).
The accusation was based on two witnesses who testified before the police. K.A. denied being the driver and had fellow passengers as witnesses who could testify in his defence. The testimony of the defence witness was crucial for the final decision of the court, which decided to acquit the defendant because it had doubts as to whether he had committed the “crime”. Besides the rejection of the charges, the legal claim of his lawyer DIMITRIOS CHOULIS from the Human Rights Legal Project (HRLP) Samos focused on his identity as an asylum seeker, which should exclude him from the criminalisation of illegal entry.