Greek police had arrested the three men in August 2023 on kidnapping charges, after the mainly Syrian and Pakistani migrants were forcefully taken and held in a trailer against their will.

The arrests followed the circulation of a social media video, in which the migrants were being forced in a trailer, which was pulled by a jeep in response to a fire.

In the clip, one man was heard saying that he had loaded the trailer with "25 pieces" while urging other civilians to "round up" further migrants, whom he accused of arson. The individual is also attributed with saying: "They will burn us all, do you see them?"

Lawyers representing the defendants argued in court that the migrants had been rounded up as a form of citizen's arrest on the suspicion that they were arsonists, adding that the men had intended to hand them over to police.

Also read: Far-right militants in Greece illegally 'arrest' migrants they blame for fires

Events ruled as not racially motivated

According to court documents, the case was initially treated as a racially motivated attack. However, in its ruling, the court stated that the motives of the three men could not be deemed as racist.

It is believed that this is the reason why the court decided to downgrade the charge of kidnapping to the lesser one of illegal detention, legal sources told Reuters. 

Further details are yet to be revealed, as courts in Greece do not publish their rulings immediately.

In media reports, the men had previously been associated with Greece's far-right.

Disappointment in leniency of sentence

The lawyers defending the migrants in the case said they were disappointed with the ruling and its justification, claiming that this kind of leniency would only undermine further attacks on migrants in the country.

"It's obviously a negative development," said John Patzanakidis, one of the lawyers representing the migrants. 

"The number of racist crimes recorded in Greece is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a few of them reach the court and in even fewer, the court recognizes a racist motive."

Greece's Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN), which is made up of several NGOs, meanwhile confirmed that the Evros fire had spurred anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

The group added that attacks by civilian militia groups on migrants were not new in the region.

Also read: Amnesty International mourns migrants dead in Greek wildfires

Not sufficient proof for arson

At first, there had also been charges laid against the migrants, accusing them of attempted arson. These charges, however, were dropped later once it was ruled that there was not enough evidence to support those accusations.

The group of 13 migrants had crossed the Evros River, which delineates the border between Turkey and Greece. 

Later, nearly 20 other migrants and refugees in the region were killed in a fire, which the three vigilante men had wrongly blamed on this group.

The fire was the deadliest in Greece in 2023.

Also read: At the Evros border, the bodies mount up

With Reuters