British planespotters fly home, vow to fight Greek convictions
LUTON, England- Twelve British planespotters convicted in Greece of obtaining state secrets returned to Britain on Saturday, vowing to contest their suspended sentences all the way to Europe’s highest court. «I have never seen such a weak prosecution case, such a strong defense and such a lousy decision,» Lesley Coppin, wife of spotter Paul Coppin, told reporters after landing at Luton airport. The group were greeted by family, friends and a jostling media pack after their flight from Greece. A judge in the southern town of Kalamata on Friday sentenced six of the group and two Dutchmen who were with them to three years in jail for «illegally obtaining state secrets.» The six other Britons were each sentenced to one year as accomplices. They have all appealed, determined to clear their names and prove they were doing no more than pursuing an innocent, if eccentric and particularly British, hobby involving photographing aircraft and noting their registration numbers. Felony charges of espionage brought after the 14 were arrested near a military base at Kalamata in November had been dropped in favor of misdemeanor charges, on which Greek jail terms are routinely suspended or, at worst, converted to fines. Some confusion in court led to reports in Britain that only the six given one-year terms had had their sentences suspended while those with three-year terms had merely been freed on bail pending appeal. But defense counsel Yiannis Zacharias confirmed that the judge’s announcement of suspensions referred to every case. Zacharias told Reuters that the appeal hearing, a date for which would probably be announced in the next couple of weeks, would consider whether to uphold those 14 suspended sentences. If it did, all the spotters would be free to go on condition they did not re-offend and would have their bail money returned. In extremely rare cases, Greek appeals courts can impose stiffer sentences. But Zacharias stressed this was highly unlikely and said that even if a sentence for a misdemeanor were not suspended, it would routinely be converted into a fine. Lesley Coppin, the only woman in the group, was found guilty as an accomplice. She said she was shocked and hoped they could avoid returning to Kalamata to pursue their case. «I don’t think we are going to get any justice in Kalamata,» she said. The group would rather have their appeal heard in Athens and would indeed prefer to bypass Greek justice entirely and appeal at a European Union level, she said. European appeals? Fellow spotter Mike Bursell confirmed they would take the court’s ruling if necessary to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. «A great injustice has been done here and the convictions that we now have give us no alternative but to pursue every possible avenue to eventually get them overturned at Strasbourg,» he told Sky News television. «It’s not an option to just take this lying down and say the Greeks can just do what they like to us. These are innocent people whose lives they are wrecking.» The case has caused a flurry of diplomatic consultations between Britain and its NATO and European Union ally Greece. Britain on Friday called the Greek response to the case «disproportionate.» But the Greek Foreign Ministry said the spotters had had a fair trial by a sympathetic court, noting that the sentences had been suspended. The planespotters’ hobby, virtually unknown in Greece, baffled court officials who repeatedly asked the defendants to explain exactly what they do. Greece strictly bans photography of military installations.
