A police officer was sentenced for illegal migrant trafficking through the “Macedonia” airport

A policeman was sentenced by the Three-member Court of Criminal Appeals of Thessaloniki to a total prison sentence of 7 years and 8 months for involvement in the illegal trafficking of immigrants, through the international airport “Macedonia”.

The court decided to conditionally suspend the execution of the sentence before the Court of Appeal, with the result that the 47-year-old policeman will be out of prison, where he has been held since last June, when he was arrested by his colleagues from the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Security Forces of Northern Greece.

With the same decision, a second police officer who had been accused in the case was acquitted.

The “incorruptible” of EL.AS. had arrested the 47-year-old, with the rank of police officer B, when two refugees from Syria (siblings and among them a 12-year-old) tried to pass the boarding gate of the “Macedonia” airport, using fake passports, citizens of Estonia, destined for Central Europe. In total, the indictment charged him with nine counts of trafficking (for remuneration), some of which he was ultimately found guilty of.

He himself, in his apology, accepted some individual acts. “I did not gain anything from the case. I received some pressure to strengthen my position,” said the 47-year-old who served as a supervisory shift officer at “Macedonia”. As for his co-accused police officer – whom he called “best man” in conversations, he said he had absolutely no involvement, stressing that he was wrong to expose him.

The court finally found the police officer (with trade union activity in the past) guilty of the acts of the gang (upon conversion of the indictment from a criminal organization), of facilitating the exit from the country and of inciting – offering to commit criminal acts.

The judges recognized the mitigating factor of the previous legal life and decided that the appeal should have a suspensive force under the conditions of the payment of a cash guarantee of 5,000 euros and the ban on leaving the country.