Episode 26: The Samos 2 and the criminalisation of refugees in Greece

In today's episode, we speak with lawyers Alexandros Georgoulis and Dimitris Choulis about the controversial legal case they worked on known as the Samos 2.   The Samos 2 are two Afghan refugees who tried to reach Greece by boat with 22 others in November 2020. Their boat got into trouble as it neared the island of Samos and capsized.   The Greek coastguards were aware of the incident, but did not launch a rescue.   The next day, one of the refugees, known only as N, found the body of his six-year-old son on the rocks. The cops arrested him and charged him with "endangering the life of his child." He faced 10 years in prison.    Hasan, another one of the refugees on the boat that night, was also arrested and charged with human trafficking because the authorities said he drove the boat. He faced 230 years behind bars.    Then in May 2022, both N and Hasan were freed and can now try to rebuild their lives in Greece.    Alexandros and Dimitris, who represented the Samos 2, are going to tell us about the injustice caused by the Samos 2 case, and the absurd EU directive that is causing refugees to be charged with human trafficking.    ---Show notes--- You can follow Alexandros Georgoulis on Twitter on: @GeorgoulisLAW   Dimitris Choulis is on Twitter on: @DimitrisChoulis   For more on the Samos 2, check out the Free the Samos 2 website here: freethesamostwo.com   And on The Civil Fleet here:  bit.ly/3twRMnx   For more on the Amir Zahiri and Akif Rasuli case, which Alexandros talks about, see here: bit.ly/39oAt1g   Read more about Hanad Abdi Mohammad's case here: bit.ly/3QhtWWB, here: nyti.ms/3mDQQtJ and here (if you read French or can translate the page): bit.ly/3mXWNSJ.   The Civil Fleet's stories on Greece can be found here: bit.ly/3QgPnHu.   Iason Apostolopoulos, mentioned right at the beginning of the interview, is a Greek rescue worker. We interviewed him on episode 18.   Get in touch: @FleetCivil [email protected] civilfleet.com   Support:  ko-fi.com/civilfleet