FILE PHOTO: Protesters, some of them survivors of a deadly migrant shipwreck off southwestern Greece, hold a banner with photos of the missing during a demonstration marking a year from the shipwreck, in Athens Greece, June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek lawyers representing the survivors and victims of a deadly 2023 shipwreck said on Monday a naval court needed to examine more evidence after a preliminary investigation failed to shed light on the case.
Hundreds died on June 14, 2023, when an overcrowded fishing trawler, monitored by the Greek coastguard for several hours, capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos.
A local naval court, which opened a criminal investigation last year, has concluded a preliminary investigation and referred the case to a chief prosecutor, the lawyers said on Monday, adding they had reviewed the evidence examined by the court so far.
"The case file contains serious gaps and omissions," they said in a statement, adding that the captain and the crew of the coastguard vessel monitoring the migrant ship had been summoned by the court, but not the coastguard officials supervising them.
Evidence, including the record of communications between the officials involved in the operation, was not included in the case file, they added.
"The absence of any investigation into the responsibilities of the competent search and rescue bodies and the leadership of the Greek coastguard is deafening," they said.
The chief prosecutor will decide if and how the probe will progress.
Under Greek law, prosecutors are not allowed to comment on ongoing investigations.
The vessel, which had set off from Libya, was carrying up to 700 Pakistani, Syrian and Egyptian migrants bound for Italy. Only 104 people were rescued and 82 bodies found.
Greece's coastguard has denied any role in the sinking, which was one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean Sea.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; editing by Barbara Lewis)
