Today in Crete, we witnessed the trials of boys who had fled Sudan only to be treated not as people exercising their right to move, but as “criminals” accused of ‘smuggling’. None of their cases were heard; all their trials were delayed until November and December. There were also defendants from Bangladesh and Egypt, who were treated in the same unjust way.
There was no access to an official translator; instead, another prisoner was introduced as a translator and was handcuffed.
This delay is outrageous. It means these boys will remain behind bars for months longer, locked away when they could have been free today. Their youth, time and chances to heal from the systemic violence they experienced from Sudan, Bangladesh and Egypt to Greece is being stolen.
The postponement of trials is an example of the systematic violence of an unjust legal system, which we have witnessed again today.
Who will give them back the years and days that European prison walls are taking away? Each day is as another unjust day again.
We send them our solidarity and strength as they are forced back into limbo and uncertainty. We will stand with them until all prisons fall!