The UK Plane Spotters Arrested in Greece

This is a subject that deserves its own thread:

On 2008-01-16 19:17:44 -0800, irwell said:

>>
>> But it is not, as you originally asserted, illegal to take photographs
>> of airports. Further, the rules have not significantly changed since
>> 9/11.
>
> Except maybe in Greece, weren't a group of airplane spotters,
> amateurs who like looking at planes and collecting pictures,
> from the UK jailed by the Greeks recently?

We were talking about the US, though. Yeah, the airplane spotters in
Greece were arrested in November, 2001 on charges of 'spying.' They
were held for over a month without any charges at all and they were
denied habeas corpus. Two of them were Dutch, BTW. The other nine were
Britons. They were originally charged with espionage, then the charges
reduced to illegal information gathering. It appeared they might
actually be released on December 13, but the prosecutor unexpectedly
came back with a recommendation that they go to trial. When they
finally went to trial in April, 2002, they were convicted on the
original charges of espionage and sentenced to three years in prison.
They were allowed to return home to prepare their appeals.

The thing is, the Greeks alleged that the spotters knew their activity
was illegal. They had been warned and were attempting to photograph the
airplanes at a military base with concealed cameras. The trouble with
these allegations was that the group was at a public military air show.

Some of the people arrested were not plane spotters themselves, but
spouses who were just along for the trip. The only woman, a 51-year old
grandmother, was held in the notoriously violent women's jail in Athens
where she shared a dormitory with 14 others.

Eleven of the plane spotters were finally acquitted in November 2002,
as were five others charged with providing assistance to them. The
twelfth plane spotter was not acquitted because he did not attend his
appeal due to poor health at the time.

Anyway, whatever you do, do not take photographs of airplanes in
Greece. Do not even seem to be looking at them or taking notes. In
fact, it is best if you avoid studying birds there, too. One Greek
court official said that perhaps plane spotting was understandable in a
country like Britain, where the weather was bad all the time and might
drive people crazy. But in Greece there was no excuse for engaging in
such a hobby because the sun was shining all the time.

Greece has never apologized for their outrageous treatment of these
plane spotters, the suspension of their legal and civil rights, and
their imprisonment in filthy overcrowded conditions. The prosecutor
allowed that spies usually do not travel in large groups on tour buses
in broad daylight, but said that the information the people were
gathering could, under other circumstances, have been used to harm
Greece. He could not say how.

Relations between Greece and Britain were severely damaged by the
incident and the negative publicity was not good for tourism in Greece.
Another such incident would probably cause all the western countries to
issue travel warnings against Greece.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

"C J Campbell" a écrit dans le message de
2008011707451075249-christophercampbell@hotmailcom...
> This is a subject that deserves its own thread:
>
> On 2008-01-16 19:17:44 -0800, irwell said:
>
>>>
>>> But it is not, as you originally asserted, illegal to take photographs
>>> of airports. Further, the rules have not significantly changed since
>>> 9/11.
>>
>> Except maybe in Greece, weren't a group of airplane spotters,
>> amateurs who like looking at planes and collecting pictures,
>> from the UK jailed by the Greeks recently?
>
> We were talking about the US, though. Yeah, the airplane spotters in
> Greece were arrested in November, 2001 on charges of 'spying.' They were
> held for over a month without any charges at all and they were denied
> habeas corpus. Two of them were Dutch, BTW. The other nine were Britons.
> They were originally charged with espionage, then the charges reduced to
> illegal information gathering. It appeared they might actually be released
> on December 13, but the prosecutor unexpectedly came back with a
> recommendation that they go to trial. When they finally went to trial in
> April, 2002, they were convicted on the original charges of espionage and
> sentenced to three years in prison. They were allowed to return home to
> prepare their appeals.
>
> The thing is, the Greeks alleged that the spotters knew their activity was
> illegal. They had been warned and were attempting to photograph the
> airplanes at a military base with concealed cameras. The trouble with
> these allegations was that the group was at a public military air show.
>
> Some of the people arrested were not plane spotters themselves, but
> spouses who were just along for the trip. The only woman, a 51-year old
> grandmother, was held in the notoriously violent women's jail in Athens
> where she shared a dormitory with 14 others.
>
> Eleven of the plane spotters were finally acquitted in November 2002, as
> were five others charged with providing assistance to them. The twelfth
> plane spotter was not acquitted because he did not attend his appeal due
> to poor health at the time.
>
> Anyway, whatever you do, do not take photographs of airplanes in Greece.
> Do not even seem to be looking at them or taking notes. In fact, it is
> best if you avoid studying birds there, too. One Greek court official said
> that perhaps plane spotting was understandable in a country like Britain,
> where the weather was bad all the time and might drive people crazy. But
> in Greece there was no excuse for engaging in such a hobby because the sun
> was shining all the time.
>
> Greece has never apologized for their outrageous treatment of these plane
> spotters, the suspension of their legal and civil rights, and their
> imprisonment in filthy overcrowded conditions. The prosecutor allowed that
> spies usually do not travel in large groups on tour buses in broad
> daylight, but said that the information the people were gathering could,
> under other circumstances, have been used to harm Greece. He could not say
> how.
>
> Relations between Greece and Britain were severely damaged by the incident
> and the negative publicity was not good for tourism in Greece. Another
> such incident would probably cause all the western countries to issue
> travel warnings against Greece.
>

This could have placed Greece on the list of the countries the US will
invade next if they had been US citizens

Jean