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Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
ATHENS – A year after a fishing vessel crammed with refugees in waters near Greece sank, killing hundreds, Greek Coast Guard officers who are suspects in the capsizing will testify as part of a disciplinary investigation into their role.
The New Democracy government, which at the time quickly backed the Coast Guard, which had a vessel at the site, has had a largely secret investigation and the agency denied claims by survivors the boat toppled when a tow rope was attached to move it out to sea.
The government, which is trying to keep out refugees and migrants and with nearly 50,000 in the country in detention camps on the mainland and islands, has also denied reports of pushing back refugees at sea and the Coast Guard alleged to have thrown some into the water with their hands tied, to drown.
The vessel, the Adriana, was international waters off the southwestern coast of Pylos on the Peloponnese, and in Greece’s search area, when the Coast Guard boat
Up to 700 people were in the trawler which left Libya heading for Italy. Some 104 survivors were rescued but only 82 bodies were recovered. One year on, no one has been held accountable and relatives are still waiting for news, said Reuters.
About 10 officers, including the Coast Guard’s Commander and the Captain have been called to testify as suspects, the sources who are close to the inquiry said, to be questioned in an inquiry opened by Greece’s Ombudsman Andreas Pottakis.
He has only the authority to investigate the actions of security forces on a disciplinary level and is examining whether Coast Guard actions or omissions helped cause the tragedy.
The Coast Guard said that those on the boat that was piloted by human traffickers refused assistance. “Adequate indications” of wrongdoing throughout the search and rescue operation have emerged, one of the sources said.
Greece put nine Egyptians on board on trial and blamed them but a Greek court threw out the case – after they were held almost a year – because Greece does not have jurisdiction over the seas there.
The suspects will testify over gaps in the Coast Guard’s log and whether a rescue operation was properly planned, the sources said, although it wasn’t said if a coverup will be cited as in the case of a deadly 2023 train wreck killing 57 just four months earlier.
Other questions will look into whether the vessel that arrived at the scene to monitor the migrants’ trawler was adequately equipped for a rescue mission and whether, and if so why, there were special forces on board, the report added.
If the investigation concludes that officers involved in the operation were accountable at any stage, they will be called to respond. They could face disciplinary action, with the highest penalty being dismissal from the service.
A naval court, the only judicial body in Greece that can examine any criminal responsibility of coast guard officers opened a separate investigation last year, but it is still at a preliminary stage, no reason given why it’s lagging.
