completed its preliminary examination and criminal investigation into the Pylos shipwreck and had transmitted the case file to the Head Prosecutor of the Court. 79 Upon initial review of the voluminous file, the lawyers observed significant gaps and omissions in the preliminary investigation, such as the lack of summons for written explanations of those legally responsible for the failures and omissions of the Search & Rescue Operation, namely, the competent bodies of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, the Operations Centre and their hierarchical superiors, i.e., the leadership of the Coast Guard. 80 The lawyers further requested the Court, inter alia, the record of the communications of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre throughout the period in question, as they have not been included in the case file. The lawyers further underlined the incomplete examination of the mobile phone devices of the crew members of the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) patrol vessel involved in the incident (ΠΠΛΣ 920), since this examination took place without any evaluation or forensic analysis of the extracted data. The lawyers also emphasised the urgent need to lift the secrecy of telephone communications for both business and private phones of the relevant officers of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre and of the Operations Centre. Therefore, on 23 December 2024, the lawyers filed a request to the competent Public Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court requesting, inter alia, criminal prosecution for the shipwreck not only against the crew of the HCG patrol vessel but also against the competent executives of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre and the Operations Centre, and against the persons in charge of higher hierarchical or supervisory directorates and bodies, who are responsible for acts and omissions that led to the shipwreck and the death of 600 people. As a GCR lawyer of the Pylos case underlined: “It is demanded and expected a thorough investigation into the case of the Pylos shipwreck, the greatest tragedy in the Mediterranean, in which hundreds of people lost their lives, and that responsibility be assigned to all those involved”.81 On 3 February 2025 the Greek Ombudsperson announced, with a press release, the completion of the investigation and the relevant conclusion re. the shipwreck of Pylos.82 The Independent Authority had decided to initiate its own investigation, within its special mandate as National Mechanism for the Investigation of Arbitrary Incidents, in relation to acts or omissions of Coastguard officers upon the Pylos shipwreck, following the express refusal of a disciplinary investigation by the Hellenic Coast Guard. The Ombudsperson pointed out the series of serious and reprehensible omissions in the search and rescue duties on the part of senior officers of the Hellenic Coast Guard, which constitute clear indications of the existence of, inter alia, offences of deadly exposure to danger, as well as exposure to endangering the life, health and physical integrity of those on board the Adriana fishing vessel. The Ombudsperson ‘s Report also identifies serious gaps and omissions in the case file concerning critical evidence.83 The Report was forwarded to the Minister of Shipping and Insular Policy for the exercise of disciplinary jurisdiction on his behalf, and to the competent Prosecuting Authority of the Piraeus Naval Court, for the evaluation of the objective and subjective substance of the relevant criminal offences.The Ombudsperson Mr. Andreas Pottakis stated that: For the Independent Authority, the transparency of administrative action and the attribution of responsibilities, where they exist, for the deadly shipwreck of Pylos is an elementary legal demand, inextricably linked to respect for the rule of law, as is the thorough investigation by the administration of any other incident associated with a violation of the right to life, health and physical integrity. The Ombudsman recalled the principles of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which, in the case of the Farmakonisi shipwreck, noted that the authorities "did not take, within the limits of their powers, the measures that could reasonably be considered capable of preventing the danger". The primary issue in a search and rescue operation, according to the ECtHR, is whether the authorities' efforts were "sufficiently and appropriately focused on the lives" of the persons involved.84 79 80 81 82 83 84 RSA et al, Joint Press Release, Closure of the preliminary investigation by the prosecution of the Piraeus Maritime Court on the Pylos shipwreck - The absence of any investigation into the responsibilities of the competent search and rescue bodies and the leadership of the Greek Coast Guard is deafening, 23 December 2024, available here. Ibid. Press article published on the Ethnos newspaper website on 18 January 2025, available here. The Greek Ombudsperson, Press Release, ‘Report of the Ombudsman on the Pylos shipwreck’, 3 February 2025, available in Greek here. Greek Council for Refugees et al, Joint Press Release, ‘Scathing report by the Greek Ombudsman on the Pylos shipwreck’, 6 February 2025, available here. The Greek Ombudsperson, Press Release, ‘Report of the Ombudsman on the Pylos shipwreck’, 3 February 2025, available in Greek here. 38