Six suspects in Moria blaze put in pretrial detention
A magistrate and a prosecutor on the island of Lesvos investigating the fires that destroyed most of the reception and identification centre in Moria two weeks ago placed six men in pretrial detention on Monday.
The six Afghan nationals, four of which are 19 and two are 17 years of age, are facing charges of arson and membership of a criminal organization.
The fires swept through the overcrowded camp at Moria last week, prompting more than 12,000 migrants and refugees to flee. Nobody was hurt. Most of them remain without shelter, camped on a roadside near the gutted camp.
The defendants have denied the charges against them, claiming through their lawyer that they had fallen victim to the testimony of a compatriot who belongs to the Pashtun tribe who lived in the Moria and who had reason to present them as arsonists because they belong to the persecuted Hazara ethnic group.
