Doctor says migrant was shot in the head
New information has emerged about the circumstances of the bloody chase by a port authority patrol boat of a speedboat with undocumented migrants in the sea area off the southeastern Aegean island of Symi last Friday morning which led to the death of a 39-year-old Kuwaiti national.
Kathimerini has learned that the case file included a document signed by a private doctor at the Symi Health Center, which shows that the migrant was hit by a bullet in the head.
“On August 23 I received a call at the Symi Health Center at approximately 10 a.m. for a reported injury to a migrant […] without vital signs who suffered a head wound from a firearm, with the head being a possible portal of entry and the the left jaw the point of exit,” he reportedly said.
The bloody incident unfolded after a patrol boat carrying two members of the port authority spotted a speedboat with migrants moving toward the coast of Symi. A pursuit ensued, with the operators of the boat accelerating and maneuvering to avoid being immobilized and arrested. During the incident, a patrol boat sergeant fired a G3A3 assault rifle twice in the air as a warning and twice at the engine of the speedboat in order to immobilize it. One of the bullets hit the 39-year-old in the head.
As part of the preliminary investigation, officers of the Symi Port Authority examined seven migrants as witnesses, six relatives from Kuwait and one Palestinian national. Their statements showed remarkable similarities. They all identified the two young Turks, aged 24 and 16, who were eventually arrested as the operators of the boat.
“Throughout the entire trip, the boat was operated by them alone,” all seven said. They also noted that during the entire trip and especially during the chase, “we were all crouched down,” including the victim. They also testified that the operator was “going at high speed and making dangerous maneuvers.” They did not, however, describe any attempt to ram the patrol boat, as the officer who opened fire on the speedboat described in great detail.
“He again turned the boat toward us, resulting in ramming us again, this time from the side,” the 44-year-old patrol boat officer said in his testimony.
Meanwhile, acting on behalf of one his client, the lawyer Dimitris Georgakopoulos noted the absolute invalidity of the pre-trial proceedings, arguing that the prosecuted men signed documents which had not been translated into Turkish. The memorandum he submitted also calls for a search of the mobile phones of everyone involved to locate any videos of the chase and requested an expert examination of both vessels “to establish the alleged damage from the alleged collisions.”
