The Turkish authorities dropped the charges of espionage against two Greek officers who had been arrested for illegal entry into Turkish territory in 2018.

According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, the espionage charges have been dismissed and the two will only be prosecuted for illegal entry.

The two Greek servicemen Angelos Mitretodis and Dimitris Kouklatzis were arrested in March 2018 at the Greek-Turkish borders in Evros, northeastern Greece when they crossed the border on foot and were held for months in the maximum-security prison of Adrianople. The two were released in August 2018 and returned to Greece five months after their arrest.

Following an investigation by the Attorney General of Adrianople on the charge of “military espionage”, it was ruled that there were no grounds for prosecution, as no incriminating evidence was found on the smartphones.

The city’s Criminal Court will now only focus on examining the case for “entering a restricted military zone”.