Tomorrow, a criminal case against me will come before a court on Rhodes.
For years, this case has existed in police files, legal documents, arrest warrants and court decisions. It has crossed borders and eventually reached my home in Norway, where I was arrested in March.
Tomorrow it reaches a courtroom.
I will be in Norway. My lawyer will be on Rhodes representing me.
There is little left for me to say about the accusations that I have not already said. I deny the charges against me.
But before this trial begins, there is something I do want to say.
For almost nine years, Aegean Boat Report has documented what happens at Europe’s borders when there are few, if any, independent witnesses.
We have documented people arriving on Greek islands and people in distress at sea. We have documented people who disappeared after reaching Greek territory, and people who were later found back in Turkey or drifting in life rafts in the Aegean.
We have documented pushbacks and other human-rights violations because somebody has to create a record of what happened — and because people should not simply be able to disappear without anyone asking where they went.
That work has made things visible that some would undoubtedly have preferred remained unseen.
Tomorrow, I become a defendant in a criminal trial in Greece.
That is a strange position to find myself in after years spent documenting the actions of others.
But prosecution does not change what we documented. It does not erase the photographs, videos, coordinates, testimonies or records collected over the years. And it does not change why this work was necessary in the first place.
Whatever happens tomorrow, that record remains.
And so does Aegean Boat Report.
We are still here.
We are still documenting.
And we are still watching.
Tommy Olsen
Founder, Aegean Boat Report
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