Trial Monitoring Annual Report 2025
The Annual Trial Monitoring Report 2025 by the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) and Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Thessaloniki Office, documents serious and recurring fair-trial concerns in the prosecution of people on the move charged with “illegal transport of third-country nationals” in Greece.
The report is based on monitoring of 123 criminal trials concerning 190 individuals, between January and October 2025. The core charge of illegal transport accounted for 94% of all cases observed.
Key findings include:
- Systematic use of pre-trial detention, applied in 159 of 173 first degree cases monitored.
- Extremely brief hearings, with almost half of them lasting less than 30 minutes.
- Predominant reliance on state-appointed lawyers (65%), often appointed on the day of the hearing.
- Inadequate interpretation services, affecting defendants’ ability to understand and participate in proceedings.
- Limited examination of witnesses, with key prosecution witnesses being members of the Hellenic Coast Guard.
- Convictions were the overwhelming outcome, with prosecutorial proposals and judicial decisions aligning in 85% of monitored cases.
- The widespread and highly alarming use of plea deals leading to definitive convictions, with defendants receiving limited information about the consequences.
- Standardised and severe sentencing patterns, including long prison sentences of up to 570 years for illegal transport offences, with an average sentence of 62,5 years, as well as high fines of up to 850.000 euros.
The report concludes that these practices raise serious concerns regarding compliance with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Greek Constitution, and international fair-trial standards. It highlights risks to the presumption of innocence, proportionality in sentencing, and the requirement of individualised judicial assessment.
The organisations call on judicial and legislative authorities to strengthen access to effective legal assistance, guarantee high-quality interpretation, safeguard the right to examine witnesses, re-evaluate the routine use of pre-trial detention, and ensure that cases are examined in a genuine individualised and substantive manner.
Product details
Table of contents
Abbreviations 7
Glossary 9
Relevant Legislation 11
Procedural Stages in Greek Criminal Justice 13
Executive Summary 15
1. Introduction 18
2. Methodology 19
2.1 Data collection and processing 19
2.2 Limitations 20
3. International fair trial standards 23
3.1 Article 6 - European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 23
3.2 Fair trial standards in greek national law 27
3.2.1 Constitutional guarantees 27
3.2.2 Code of Criminal Procedure (Law 4620/2019) 28
4. Legislative review: migration and criminalization 30
4.1 EUropean legislative framework 30
4.2 Greek legislative framework 33
4.2.1 Migration Code (Law 5038/2023) 33
4.2.2 Procedural and legal interaction with the broader criminal legal framework 36
5. Analysis of trial monitoring findings 41
5.1 Overview of charges and structure of findings 41
5.2 Plea Deals 44
5.3 Pre-trial detention 48
5.4 Legal representation 50
5.5 Interpretation 52
5.6 Hearing duration 54
5.7 Prosecutors- Judges reasonings 56
5.8 Claims and objections 59
5.8.1 Procedural objections 59
5.8.2 Substantive claims 61
5.9 Evidentiary proceedings- Witnesses 65
5.9.1 Defence witness 65
5.9.2 Prosecution witnesses 65
5.10 Verdicts - Sentencing 68
5.10.1 Verdicts 68
5.10.2 Cumulative sentencing statistics 69
5.11 Mitigating circumstances 73
6 Analysis: Fair-Trial considerations in the greek criminal justice system 75
6.1 Criminalisation as migration governance 75
6.2 From border control to penal governance 76
6.3 The courtroom as a site of procedural concerns 76
6.3.1 Right to a fair and public hearing 77
6.3.2 Presumption of innocence 77
6.3.3 Adequate time and facilities for defence & legal assistance 77
6.3.4 Examination of evidence and witnesses 77
6.3.5. Language and interpretation 78
6.4 Sentencing, deterrence, and proportionality 78
6.5 Political and legal implications 78
7 Recommendations 80