Afghan father cleared in 6-year-old’s death at sea

A Greek court on Wednesday cleared an Afghan refugee of criminal charges related to the death of his son, aged 6, who drowned during a sea crossing from the Turkish coast in November 2020.

Nander Ayubi and his son were separated at sea when their boat sank.

Ayubi’s efforts to find the child were in vain and the next morning he was taken to the morgue on the eastern Aegean island of Samos to identify his body. He faced charges of exposing his child to life-threatening danger. If convicted, his sentence could have reached up to 10 years.

Ayubi was raising his child in Istanbul and left Turkey when his asylum application was rejected and he was informed his son could not attend a Turkish school.

Another Afghan man, accused of skippering the boat that Ayubi and his son were traveling on, was given a 17-month suspended sentence. The court accepted he was not a trafficker.