A fisherman in Greece who found the body of a snorkeller in his nets and threw it back into the sea has been found guilty of manslaughter.
The incident occurred in September 2021, when the unnamed 55-year-old defendant spotted the corpse while hauling in his nets in the Pelion region of Greece’s Aegean coast. The site lay east of the city of Volos, where the trial took place last week.
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The snorkeller, aged 74, had been reported to the authorities as missing the previous day. But instead of passing on news of his discovery, the fisherman had initially left the scene, Coast Guard officers told the court.
He had returned later and, finding that the snorkeller was still trapped in his nets, had released the body and let it float away. He told the court that he had been scared and panicked, according to a trial report by Kathimerini.
The body was later spotted 5m from shore and retrieved by Coast Guard officers, a recreational diver and other volunteers.
The manslaughter conviction resulted from the snorkeller having been caught in nets that belonged to the fisherman, although in mitigation he told the court that he had placed two buoys above them, and that these should have acted as a warning to any water-user not to stray into their vicinity.
The fisherman was given a 22-month suspended prison sentence.
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