The Greek justice system arrested and remanded nine Egyptians charged with “illegal trafficking” in human beings by the deadly shipwreck of a ship overloaded with migrants off the coast of the country, a judicial source reported on Tuesday.
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The men were arrested last week in the southern Greek port of Kalamata after surviving the sinking of the ship, one of the worst shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years, which left at least 82 dead.
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The detainees, who are between 20 and 40 years old, have also been accused of creating a “criminal organization” and “negligent homicide.”
The defendants rejected the charges during a hearing held before a judge, which lasted more than 10 hours, according to the judicial source.
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Under Greek law, they face life in prison. Only 104 people were rescued after the shipwreck occurred on Wednesday, the majority from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan.
The authorities They still do not know how many people were on board, but they estimate that they were between 400 and 700.
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The ship left Egypt without passengers for Tobruk, a city in eastern Libya, to embark the migrants and continue to Italy, according to port sources.
AFP
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