Four years after attacks on a boat carrying refugees and a German journalist in the port of Thermi on Lesbos, four defendants have been found guilty.
On 1 March 2020, 50 refugees drifted unmanoeuvrable on a rubber dinghy between Turkey and Greece before the Greek coast guard brought them to the port of Thermi on Lesbos. A crowd of over 100 people awaited them there, shouting racist slogans, throwing plastic bottles and even preventing even crying toddlers from disembarking.
German journalist Michael Trammer, who works for “nd” among others, documented the events and became a target of the mob himself. Now, after two attempts, four of those involved have been convicted on all charges.
After the trial began on 22 October, the court announced the verdict at the second hearing on Friday. The main offender, who punched and kicked Trammer and led the group, received 37 months in prison. An accused accomplice was sentenced to 29 months probation. The court confirmed dangerous bodily harm and recognised a racist motive. Two other participants received suspended sentences of 28 and 26 months.
A journalist who was at the harbour with Trammer appeared as the main witness for the prosecution. The conviction was also based on the research of a Greek journalist and forensics expert Phevos Simeonidis, who forensically analysed videos documenting the events from various perspectives.
These videos were not initially included in the files, but were later admitted and proved the offences and the racist motivation of the accused. Simeonidis emphasised this to “nd” as a remarkable aspect of the proceedings, “as the Greek court system usually shies away from such evidence”. However, the introduction of the videos was also important because none of the refugees appeared as co-plaintiffs.
The verdict is not yet final; the prosecution and defence can appeal. The men’s lawyers justified the offences with the general outrage over the refugee situation after Turkish President Erdoğan had thousands of migrants brought to the Greek border. The conditions on the island were also unbearable after more and more arrivals, but mainly for the inmates of the Moria refugee camp. Six months after the incident in Thermi, parts of the overcrowded camp burned down after an arson attack.
Trammer was represented in court by a lawyer from the Greek branch of HIAS, a Jewish-American non-profit organisation that provides humanitarian aid and support for refugees. Trammers’ lawyer, Elli Kriona-Saranti, welcomed Friday’s decision and emphasised that the recognition of the racist motive was in line with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and that it was therefore “not a matter of spontaneous outbursts of frustration”.
Of the original five defendants, one has since died and the investigation against another has been dropped. The trial had previously been adjourned three times at short notice. As Trammer still had to travel each time, he incurred costs that were partially covered by the “Reporters Respond” emergency fund of the organisation Free Press Unlimited. For the most recent trial date, the journalist collected almost €1,000 via crowdfunding.
During the attack, one of the perpetrators took two cameras from Trammer’s rucksack and threw them into the harbour basin. Trammer is not currently planning civil proceedings for compensation for the destroyed equipment worth over €5,000, as the criminal proceedings were already very stressful, as he explained to “nd”.
On the X platform, Trammer thanked his supporters for their help in dealing with the psychological consequences of the attack. “I have often seen and documented racist and right-wing extremist marches. However, the events in Thermi are particularly etched in my memory,” says Trammer to “nd”. The hatred was specifically directed at defenceless people.
After the attack, Trammer had to be taken to hospital in Mytilini, where his wounds were stitched up. However, the transport was considerably delayed by roadblocks set up by self-proclaimed vigilante groups on Lesbos.
At the time, right-wing extremists from various countries acted as ideological fire starters. The network Pegida in Dresden called for people to travel to Greece to “protect” the EU’s external borders. Five days after the attack on Trammer, European neo-Nazis and members of the “Identitarian Movement” arrived on Lesbos, including the then AfD member of the Bundestag Mario Müller, who ultimately also took part in the so-called “secret meeting” of right wingers in Potsdam documented by the research group Correctiv a year ago.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Refugees were attacked by a racist mob in the port of Thermi on 1 March 2020 and prevented from disembarking (Michael Trammer).
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