Two Afghan youths get five years for Moria fire

Two Afghan youths each received a five-year jail sentence after a three-member juvenile court on the island of Lesvos found them guilty of starting the fire that destroyed the Moria refugee camp in September last year.

The verdict for the two defendants, who were 17 at the time of the fire, was announced on Tuesday after a six-hour session. The defendants claimed that they had nothing to do with the fire and were not at the camp when it broke out. 

The trial of four youths detained in connection to the incident is pending.

The fire that completely destroyed the Moria camp had started after riots on the night of September 8. A 42-year-old Afghan man who arrived on Lesvos in December 2019 later testified to the Mytilene police authority that it had been started by a group of five people, who were later arrested. Another was identified by police from a video posted on Facebook.