In 2021, Mohammad Hanad Abdi was sentenced to 142 years in prison after being convicted following a deadly crossing in a dinghy from Turkey to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos the previous year, news agency AP reported.

At an appeal on Monday (January 9) on the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos, Abdi's sentence was reduced to eight years. More importantly, an appeals court judge ordered his release, recognizing time served and good behavior. The trial was attended by several members of the European Parliament who had argued that the 29-year-old had been wrongfully convicted.

"We are all in tears with relief. It was a very difficult day. The state prosecutor took a tough line and wanted to uphold the sentence," EU lawmaker Stelios Kouloglou, who led the campaign and attended the trial, told AP.

"It's a very important decision because many ordinary migrants are being treated like smugglers," Kouloglou said. "Mohammad will be out in several days when his papers are processed ... the next step for us is to campaign for the law to change."

Read more: Greece: Migrants and aid workers facing decades in prison

Two people drowned in crossing

Abdi, a father of four who fled Somalia for Turkey, was one of 34 people who boarded a rubber boat to Lesbos from the nearby Turkish mainland in December 2020. He told the court he had only steered the dinghy after it had been abandoned by a Turkish smuggler.

Two people drowned during the crossing when the vessel took on water. 33 others were rescued. According to Abdi's lawyers, many of the survivors backed the Somali man's account of events. The case has brought attention to drastic border protection laws in Greece introduced in recent years as part of an effort to curb irregular migration into the European Union, of which Greece is a member state.

Thousands of similar cases?

Kouloglou, a member of a left-wing political group at the EU parliament, told AP he believes that several thousand more migrants have also been wrongfully convicted and are currently serving time in Greek prisons.

Greece's center-right government didn't immediately respond to requests for comments by AP. The government has described its migration policy as "strict but fair,'' arguing that tough sentencing for smugglers is a key part of the country's border defense policy. It also maintains that it is only protecting its national and the EU's external borders.

It cites for example that Greek border authorities arrested some 1,300 suspected human smugglers last year along the Evros river bordering Turkey. Moreover, it claims that more than a quarter million irregular crossing attempts by migrants were prevented in 2022. But Greek officials continue to deny illegally pushing back migrants towards Turkey -- despite increasing evidence to the contrary made public by investigative media reports, human rights organizations and UN agencies.

The campaign to support jailed migrants has won support from human rights groups and leading Greek performing artists who have helped raise money for legal fees, AP reported. 15 European Parliament members have backed his campaign, signing letters of complaint to Greek authorities.

Last month, two Afghan men in their 20s, Akif Razouli and Amir Zahiri, were released on appeal from the same prison Abdi was in on the Greek island of Chios, according to AP. Both had received 50-year jail sentences. While Razouli was cleared, Zahiri was released after his sentence was also reduced to eight years.

With AP