By Ahmet Gencturk
ATHENS (AA) – A Greek court acquitted nine Egyptians on Tuesday of causing a shipwreck last year off Greece’s coast that killed hundreds of migrants, local media reported.
At the start of the trial in the southern city of Kalamata, the lawyers for the accused men filed an objection, pointing out that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case, as the shipwreck occurred in international waters, the Efsyn news outlet reported.
The court subsequently announced that it considered the case to be inadmissible and declared the defendants innocent, it added.
The courtroom erupted in applause following the ruling, with rights defenders and activists celebrating the decision.
On June 14, 2023, a 30-meter-long fishing boat capsized and sank about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Greece’s southern coastal town of Pylos, with most of the migrants on board from Pakistan, Syria and Libya.
There were 104 survivors out of the roughly 750 migrants on board, with the rest considered dead.