Andrew Symeou to be released from Greek jail
June 04 2010For Immediate Release
4 June 2010
Andrew Symeou to be released from Greek jail
Since his extradition to Greece under a European Arrest Warrant in July 2009, Andrew Symeou (a 21 year old from Enfield) has been held in a Greek jail for over 10 months. The Greek authorities today
accepted that the latest delays in his trial are their fault and have finally granted this young man bail.
Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials International, said:
‘This young man and his family have been through a horrendous ordeal over the last 12 months. After a long legal battle, we are delighted that he will finally be released on bail. We hope that the Greek authorities now do everything within their power to ensure his trial goes ahead as soon as possible.’
Andrew Symeou’s trial was due to commence today in Patras, Greece. However, due to the absence of key prosecution witnesses the Public Prosecutor requested an adjournment. A new date for the trial will be set by the Court of Appeal in Patras in due course. Fair Trials International has challenged previous refusals by the Greek courts to grant Andrew bail in the European Court of Human Rights arguing that it is discriminatory, a violation of Andrew’s right to liberty and contrary to the principle that Andrew should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
For more information please contact Fair Trials International on +44 (0)20 7762 6400 or +44 (0)7950 849 851
Notes to Editors
Witness summons
· The reason for today’s adjournment is that the prosecution witnesses from the UK failed to appear in court. It emerged during today’s proceedings that the summonses due to be sent to the witnesses were sent to the Greek Foreign Ministry in March. However, the Greek Foreign Ministry responded to the issuing court with a request for more information to identify the witnesses. It appears no response was provided to the Greek Foreign Ministry since this request, resulting in the summonses remaining in Greece.
· Fair Trials International has tried to prevent further delays in Andrew’s trial and has been trying to track the progress of the summons since they were issued by the Greek court to confirm when they were received by the witnesses.
· Upon learning that the witnesses had not received their summons a week before trial Fair Trials International sent letters to the prosecution witnesses informing them of the trial date and requesting their attendance in the interests of justice.
Background
· In July 2007, Andrew Symeou went on holiday with friends to Zante, Greece. While Andrew was staying in Zante another young British man, Jonathan Hiles, fell off an unguarded stage platform in a night-club, became unconscious and, tragically, died two days later from his head injury. Andrew is accused of having struck Mr Hiles causing him to fall. However, witnesses have confirmed Andrew was not in the club at the time.
· Two of Andrew’s friends were interviewed by Greek police after Andrew himself had left Zante. These young men reported that they were subjected to brutal treatment by the police, who held them for 8 hours without food or water. While in custody they were beaten, punched, slapped and threatened by the officers until they gave statements implicating Andrew in Mr Hiles’ death. Andrew’s friends immediately retracted the statements on their release and informed consular officials about the treatment they received.
· There is strong evidence that witness statements were manufactured by Zante police. The same police officers were reported as taking statements in two different places at the same time and witnesses gave word-for-word identical statements. CCTV footage showing those involved in the incident leaving the nightclub has been deleted and is not available to use in Andrew’s defence.
Extradition
· Despite the serious flaws with the case against him, the British courts refused to stop Andrew’s extradition. On 1 May 2009, the High Court decided that Andrew Symeou should be extradited to Greece to face trial under a European Arrest Warrant (“EAW”). Andrew applied for leave to argue in the House of Lords that he should not be extradited as the main evidence against him was obtained through police brutality. Although the High Court agreed that the case raised a point of public importance, the House of Lords refused to hear the appeal, ending any chance of the British courts protecting Andrew against extradition.
· Andrew Symeou was extradited to Greece on 23 July 2009.
Denial of Bail and Discrimination on Grounds of Nationality
· The investigating magistrate on the Greek Island of Zante denied Andrew Symeou’s first application for bail on 27 July 2009 on the grounds that he has no permanent address in Greece. Andrew filed an appeal against this decision which was not decided until 14 September 2009, leaving Andrew behind bars for a further two months without a review of his pre-trial detention.
· On appeal, the Judicial Council in Zante decided to continue to deny Andrew bail as he is not a Greek resident. The Council also decided to refer the case to trial, however the reasoning provided in the judgment makes it clear that none of the defence arguments were considered by the panel and they made the decision to refer the case to trial on the basis of the prosecution’s submissions alone.
· The Greek authority refused Andrew bail a third time in January, after the statutory pre-trial detention review.
Application to the European Court of Human Rights
· Fair Trials International and the AIRE Centre jointly sent an application to the European Court of Human Rights in December 2009 asking for it to deal with Andrew Symeou’s case as a matter of urgency.
· The application argued that Greece has violated the following rights in its handling of Andrew’s case:
a) The right to liberty (Article 5)- Andrew has already spent months in a Greek jail awaiting trial. The Greek courts failed to consider alternatives to detention to ensure his appearance at the trial, ignored the fact that he had an address in Greece to which he could be bailed and also ignored Andrew’s past, clean record.
b) Discrimination (Article 5 and 14)-One of the main grounds put forward by the Greek authorities for denying Andrew bail was that he was ‘not a Greek Citizen’. This constitutes discrimination on the ground of nationality and there was no justification for differential treatment.
c) The right to a fair trial (Article 6)- Neither the Applicant, nor his lawyer, was allowed to make oral representations or to appear at the hearing. The court considering the bail application also took as fact allegations made by the prosecuting authorities.