A court in Mytilene sentenced a Syrian for 52 years in prison on charges of not only illegally arriving on the Greek island of Chios through Turkey, but facilitating dozens more to do the same.
The Syrian was only identified as K.S. by the court.
He entered Chios by boat with his family and up to 40 others in early March last year when Turkey incorrectly announced in late February last year that the borders to Greece were open.
K.S. said he left Turkey because he refused to participate in their invasion of Libya in early 2020, suggesting that the illegal immigrant could have been a fighter in Syria as they are the ones usually recruited.
The court found that K.S. caused a shipwreck, endangering not only his family as many as 40 other illegal immigrants, but also Greek authorities.
READ MORE: Turkey attempted to push illegal immigrants into Greece for 14 hours.