Greece tried to cover up role in deadly shipwreck off southwestern Peloponnese

Greece tried to cover up its role in the June 14 deadly shipwreck off southwestern Peloponnese which caused the deaths of at least 82 migrants as hundreds more are feared to have drowned, a joint international media report argued Friday.

“Greek coast guard tampered with official statements to conceal their role in the wreck and pressured survivors into naming certain people as the smugglers,” said the report by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, Monitor, Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism Association (SIRAJ), El País, Reporters United and The Times, which was based on documents and testimonies of survivors.

“None of the survivors interrogated by the coast guard blamed the coast guard at all, according to the transcriptions. But in a later round of questioning by a Greek court of the same nine survivors, six of them are stated to have said the coast guard towed the boat shortly before it capsized,” it said.

It added that two survivors who testified maintained that the coast guard had omitted parts of their testimonies that mentioned towing.

Furthermore, according to the report, some survivors were pressed by Greek authorities to single out certain people as smugglers in charge of the operation.

It also underscored that some claimed that the coast guard was attempting to tow the boat to Italian waters, while others reported that the coast guard caused more deaths by circling the boat after it sunk.

Even though the European border guard agency, Frontex, has largely backed Greek’s line of arguments that the coast guard did everything it could to save those who drowned, it is now doubting the official version, the report claimed.

“The border agency has circulated an internal report on the incident based on survivor testimony, in which survivors state that the Greek coast guard was to blame for the drownings, according to sources,” it said.???????