A three-year jail sentence and a fine of 450 euros was imposed today on each of the 30 illegal immigrants who participated in last Wednesday’s riots at the closed structure of the municipality of Sintiki in Serres. According to ERT, one of those who hit a police officer the court imposed a sentence of three years and seven months.

The ruling is without suspensive effect.

According to the report, the 30 migrants, 29 Egyptians and one from Bangladesh, denied the charges during their plea and all of them said they were in their rooms during the incidents.

They made threats against police officers

In their statements, the police officers on duty at the Facility that day spoke of a very difficult situation they had to manage since they said the migrants threw too many stones towards them and moved threateningly towards them.

In fact, they said the stones broke the shield of one of their colleagues while some tried to climb the barbed wire or dig under it in order to escape.

“It’s a miracle we didn’t have something worse. There were too many stones aimed at us,” said a police officer, while he pointed out that women civilian staff at the structure were crying and fearing for their lives. Police officers told how the incidents started. A delegation of migrants asked to speak with them and in the meeting that followed they said their request because migrants who came to Greece after them are walking freely while those who arrived in the country earlier are detained and cannot leave the structure.

Police officers said that if it were not for the immediate intervention of their colleagues of the OPKE, who managed to use flash bangs to repel the migrants, they would have reached the main gate of the Facility. The police officers stressed that the identification of the 30 migrants was made using the cameras present in the structure and from the many videos uploaded by the migrants on social media.

Some of the migrants in their apologies spoke about difficult conditions of staying in the structure while two of them said they love and respect Greece. The lawyer of two of the defendants spoke about very bad conditions of detention of the migrants in the facility and the difficulties they face in applying for asylum. During and before the start of the trial two migrants fainted, were taken by ambulance to the hospital but soon returned and apologized.