On January 29, 2025, a teenager named M. Elfallah had to appear before the juvenile court in Crete to face charges of “facilating unauthorized entry” (smuggling). On November 21, 2022, at the age of 15, he boarded a large fishing vessel in Libya with his father and hundreds of people in an attempt to reach Europe. Due to his experience as a fisherman, the father took on tasks on board – whereupon both were arrested for smuggling after arriving in Greece. His father, a fisherman from Egypt, was sentenced to 280 years two years ago.

M. Elfallah was finally acquitted of all charges. He had to wait more than two years for this justified acquittal.

Maria Flouraki, M. Elfallah’s lawyer: “My client is just a child who was with his father.”

These are the arguments that were presented and accepted by the court

• The child was in a state of emergency, as he was in Libya with no other relative or supporting environment than his father, so he was obliged to follow his father to this trip.
• Whatever he did inside the boat was under the command of his father.
• Due to his age, he could not know that the trip was illegal (legal fallacy)
• The delivery of food does not constitute the legal definition of facilitation to the transportation.