A tragic incident occurred last Friday morning off the southeastern Aegean island of Symi, resulting in the death of a 39-year-old Kuwaiti migrant. The migrant was part of a group attempting to reach the coast of Symi when a port authority patrol boat spotted their speedboat. The encounter quickly escalated into a dangerous chase.
New details have surfaced, revealing that the migrant was fatally shot in the head during the pursuit. A document from a private doctor at the Symi Health Center, included in the case file, confirmed the fatal injury. The doctor reported receiving a call around 10 a.m. on August 23 regarding a migrant who had suffered a head wound from a firearm. The wound’s entry point was identified as the head, with the left jaw being the exit point.
The deadly chase began when a patrol boat, carrying two members of the port authority, noticed a speedboat carrying migrants moving toward Symi’s coast. The patrol boat pursued the speedboat, which accelerated and made evasive maneuvers to avoid being stopped. During the pursuit, a patrol boat sergeant fired his G3A3 assault rifle, aiming first into the air as a warning and then at the speedboat’s engine in an attempt to disable it. Unfortunately, one of the bullets struck the 39-year-old migrant in the head.
As part of the investigation, seven migrants who were on the speedboat were questioned. The group included six relatives from Kuwait and one Palestinian national. Their testimonies were consistent, with all of them identifying two young Turks, aged 24 and 16, as the operators of the speedboat. According to their statements, the operators controlled the boat throughout the journey, even during the high-speed chase. The passengers, including the victim, were reportedly crouched down during the entire ordeal. However, they did not confirm the officer’s claim that the speedboat attempted to ram the patrol boat.
The 44-year-old patrol boat officer, who fired the fatal shot, described the incident in detail, stating that the speedboat turned toward the patrol boat, leading to a collision. On the other hand, the defense lawyer for the prosecuted men, Dimitris Georgakopoulos, argued that the pre-trial proceedings were flawed. He claimed that the men had signed documents that were not translated into Turkish. The lawyer also requested an investigation into the mobile phones of everyone involved to find any videos of the chase, as well as an expert examination of both vessels to determine the extent of the alleged damage.