Two Ukrainian nationals have been de facto sentenced to life in prison in Greece for illegally transporting migrants. But their relatives say they are the victims of a scam.
On July 20, a court in the Greek city of Piraeus sentenced Serhiy Shvayuk and Petro Lytvynchuk to 180 years in prison each, the Slidstvo.Info media outlet reported.
According to the two men’s lawyer, Zacharias Kesses, the Ukrainians were arrested by the Greek authorities as they sailed a yacht with 63 migrants onboard.
“During the reading of a verdict, between 10 and 15 years could be added (to the sentence) for each illegal migrant,” Kesses told the Slidstvo.Info. “Initially they faced 630 years in prison.”
According to court translator Lidiya Kostiv, Shvayuk and Lytvynchuk also violated several other laws, including illegal crossing a European Union country’s border, putting the lives of passengers in danger with an overloaded boat, and the absence of emergency equipment. Moreover, neither of them had a license to operate the yacht when they were detained.
However, Shvayiuk and Lytvynchuk’s families say that they did not knowingly commit the crime. Lytvynchuk’s mother told Slidstvo.Info that the two had gone to Turkey to work legally as сaptain’s mates on a tourist boat and were forced to transport illegal migrants under duress.
“When the Greek coast guard detained them, they did not know what they were accused of for some time,” the media outlet quoted her as saying.
However, Vasyl Kyrylych, deputy director of consular services at Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, told the Ukrainska Pravda news site that the two men’s prison terms could still be reduced, as their lawyer plans to appeal the sentences.
The maximum penalty for such charges is 25 years imprisonment. And for the first time in the last three years, the court applied the lowest possible multiplier for calculating the prison term, six years for each migrant, Kyrylych said.
Sentences exceeding 25 years serve a “propagandistic or preventative” function, Kyrylych said.
Earlier, in June, Kyrylych told Ukrainska Pravda that over 150 Ukrainian nationals had been detained or convicted in Greece for illegally transporting migrants.
