Charges against nine Egyptian men accused over a 2023 migrant boat disaster off Greece were dropped on Tuesday, after a Greek court said it had no jurisdiction to hear the case as the shipwreck happened in international waters.
The men, aged between 21 and 41, were arrested hours after the boat sank and have remained in pre-trial detention since on charges of migrant smuggling, causing a shipwreck and participating in a criminal organisation. They have denied any wrongdoing.
Up to 700 people from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt boarded a fishing trawler in Libya that was bound for Italy before sinking off the coast of Pylos, in south-western Greece, on 14 June. One hundred and four survivors were rescued and only 82 bodies were recovered in one of the deadliest boat accidents in the Mediterranean.
International rights groups, defence lawyers and witnesses had disputed that the men were to blame. Many claim that the coastguard was at fault, which it denies.
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Guardian
