SEVENTEEN Greek coastguards have been charged over the 2023 sinking of the Adriana, a fishing vessel carrying up to 750 refugees, off the Peloponnesian town of Pylos.

Investigations into the disaster, in which it is believed over 500 people drowned, have ground on for years, with the Hellenic Coastguard accused of causing the Adriana to sink and then complicity in silencing witnesses.

The deputy prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court has indicted 17 coastguards, including the captain of the LS-920, a vessel which monitored the Adriana for 15 hours before it sank and whose attempt to tow the boat has been cited as a cause of it capsizing.

The captain is charged with “failure to provide assistance” to a vessel in distress, as well as “dangerous interference” with the ship. Four senior officials, including the then coastguard chief and the supervisor of Piraeus’s National Search and Rescue Centre, are accused of “exposing others to danger,” while the crew of the LS-920 are charged with complicity.

The Greek coastguard has been accused of “illegal pushbacks” —  forcing refugees back into another country’s territory — and of abandoning migrants at sea. One former coastguard interviewed by the BBC was overheard admitting footage showing this was “clearly illegal” and adding to a colleague: “I don’t know why they did it in broad daylight.”

The Adriana disaster was one of the deadliest ever in the Mediterranean. Charges relate to the 82 bodies retrieved from the water, but hundreds more are believed to have drowned and never been found. People-smugglers in charge of the boat had locked Pakistani refugees, as well as all women and children, in the boat’s hold, leaving them with no chance of escape. Just 104 people were rescued.

Nine Egyptian nationals from the boat were arrested in Greece following the disaster on suspicion of involvement in the trafficking operation, but the case against them was thrown out last year for lack of evidence, with refugee solidarity campaigners arguing that Greek authorities had picked scapegoats from the survivors.

Monday’s indictment is the first of Greek coastguards. The accused will be questioned by the Piraeus Naval Court, which will decide whether to dismiss the charges or proceed to a trial.