We were arrested at 5pm on Thursday November 8th as we attempted
to leave the public car park at Kalamata Air Base after having attended
the open day. Both vans were surrounded by armed military personnel
and Paul, the driver of the lead bus, was told by an HAF Captain that
we were being arrested under the suspicion of taking photographs.
Kalamata was the third HAF base we had visited that day (all were
open to the public and we had an invitation to attend all events) and
we had visited Araxos and Andravida that morning. At all three main
gates we were requested, as our identity was checked, not to take
any photographs: at no time did anybody from our group even take a
camera out of its bag during visits to the bases.

In fact, all camera equipment remained inside the vehicle at all times
that day. Lesley Coppin stayed with the van at all three locations so
there was no need to secure windows and doors. Despite the request
for us not to take photographs, Greek nationals were seen by members
of the group using cameras at all three bases.

Being small affairs, with no flying displays, we only remained at each event for a maximum of thirty to forty minutes. In fact, we had only
arrived at Kalamata at 4:30pm because, being the first day of the four, the bases were open to the public only from lunchtime.

After being held as a group for two hours, in a building on the airfield itself, we were then moved en masse to the local Kalamata police
station. All of our belongings were confiscated and we were processed in to the station whilst they confirmed our identities etc. After around
an hour or so members of the group with cameras were told that these were being taken away so that film could be removed for processing
and printing. We are aware that the resulting material was available to the authorities at around 23:00 to 23:30 that same night. By this
stage it became obvious that our stay was to continue longer than we, or the local police, had anticipated and food was ordered for us
some six and a half hours after our arrest. With no conclusion to the night's events looking likely, we were then taken to the basement to
spend our first of 37 nights behind bars.

At this point none of the party were unduly concerned: we had been accused of something we knew not one of us had done and we were
hopeful of release the next day, Friday. Calls were made to the British Consul and a local lawyer recommended to us. When he arrived he
made light of the situation, said it was all most likely a big misunderstanding, and that we would in all probability be released within an hour.
Statements were taken from Paul and Lesley Coppin (as tour leaders) but, and we feel this was just the first of many deplorable injustices,
at NO TIME were ANY of our party either questioned, interrogated or asked what the intention or purpose of our visit to Greec was. The
statements Paul and Lesley gave were voluntary ones and not in response to any direct questioning by the authorities. I think anybody
would agree that it is impossible to refute charges or put one's 'own side of the story' across when at no time were we informed of how
serious the charges later made were to be against us.

That afternoon we made our first court appearance: this consisted of
nothing more than being paraded in front of the local Public Prosecutor
after he had spent some hours with the Greek AF Captain and another
member of the base security force. It was to our shock and dismay that
we were to be told, in translation by our lawyers, that we were to face
"the most serious accusations of espionage" and that the prison term
for these was between 5 and 20 years. At this stage we were returned
to the police station as we agreed with our lawyer that we take an
option under Greek law to accept 48 hours to prepare our defence to
these charges. No bail was granted due to the serious nature of the
accusations made against us and we were told that we would appear
in court again on Monday 12th November.

A week later, the British Consul passed-on to us a translation of the
initial charges brought against us, and these follow below.


Left: Cessna T-37C Tweet at Kalamata Air Base

1. The following is our unofficial translation of the operational parts of the original charge against the Kalamata 12 (sic).

"You are charged that while in Greece and in various places with more than one action which constitutes the continuation of one of the
same events and jointly with others you have committed an offence that is punishable by imprisonment. Namely that at Tanagra, Attica,
on 5 Nov 2001, in Andravida, Ilia on 8 Nov 2001 and finally in the Air Base of Kalamata, Messinia where the 120 Air Force training wing is
based you and your co-defendants have managed to acquire knowledge of facts that regard the operational capabilities and the state of
aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force without having that right by law. These facts concern the international military position of Greece.
The interests of the State demand that they should be kept secret against third parties. You intended to announce these facts to an
unspecified number of persons and this could endanger the interests of the State and more particularly State security. More specifically
at the times and places mentioned above you were boarding a private vehicle together with your co-defendants, you were equipped with
observation and recording devices (telephoto lenses, cameras, binoculars and a radio transmitter receiver). Despite the fact that taking
photographs and recording any information was prohibited you and your co-defendants were photographing the military installations
mentioned above and also military aircraft including the helicopter used for the transport of Greek State political and military leaders. The
helicopter was at this time used for the transport of the Minister of Merchant Marine. You were also recording the serial numbers of aircraft
and making sketches, thus acquiring knowledge of the state of Hellenic Air Force aircraft, their operational capabilities and formations.
These facts concerned Greece's military international position and state interests demand that they should be kept secret against any third
parties. You however intended to make this available to other members of the "Touchdown Mildenhall Aviation Group" based in the UK with
a total of about 1,300 members. This publication could endanger the interests of the Greek State and more particularly its security, as they
could come into use by an enemy state."

It became apparent to us that the charges made against us were in a constant state of flux, however: the final paragraph of the charge
sheet above contains information (membership numbers of Touchdown etc.) that we gave to the Investigating Magistrate on the following Monday (Nov 12th) and which they could not have known about when the charges were supposedly made on Friday 9th November.

Over the weekend of Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th of November
we remained in the cells at Kalamata police station awaiting our appear-
ance in court on the Monday morning. Our lawyers spent time with us going
over the various charges made against us, but at that stage it seemed that
their case and accusations against us were based upon our supposedly
having taken photographs at the bases we had visited. As none of us had
at any stage done so, we were hopeful that the matter would be resolved
come the time of our court appearance. The only photograph mentioned
specifically in the charge sheet (the VIP Bell 212) was one which had been taken by one of the party: this, however, was in the General Aviation area
at the old Athens Hellenikon airport. It was photographed from a public
road alongside this area and there are no signs that forbid photography in
what is a civilian part of that airfield. As a later report by Greek Air Force
Intelligence (EYP) on all of our films discounted any photographs in our
possession as being of a "sensitive nature" it is hard to understand why it
was highlighted in the charges made against us.

Our court appearance on Monday 12th lasted virtually all day: it consisited
for the most part in us appearing individually in front of what the Greeks
term the 'Interrogator'. This gentleman is a court magistrate/judge whose
duty it is to ascertain the details of any case to be brought against the
accused. Whilst some of the party endured up to two hours of questioning,
those who went in front of him later in the day were only subjected to
fifteen or twenty minutes. As time went by it seemed he began to at least
come to an understanding that we were pursuing a harmless hobby and
that we had not breached any national security at any stage.

At the conclusion of his individual questioning, we were brought in front of him as a group. He informed us that he felt it necessary to seek
advice from Greek Air Force Intelligence as to the nature of the subjects found on our developed films. Photographs has indeed been taken
by many of the tour group that previous week but these were entirely of museum aircraft (Athens War Museum and Messalongi) and some
scrapped F-84F Thunderstreaks in a private civilian yard at Vonitsa. He stated to us that, should the report find that none of our photo-
graphs be of sensitive nature then we would no longer face any charges. As mentioned above, this report made by a three man board of
EYP officers found none of the 100+ pictures that they scrutinised in any way sensitive or illiegally-taken.

Unfortunately, for ourselves, this meant that we had to return to Kalamata police cells to await the verdict of this panel of experts. It was
expected that their investigation would take the best part of that week and we would hear the outcome on or about Thursday 15th
November. Whilst spending a further four or five days in police cells did not particularly appeal, we asked to remain in Kalamata rather than
all be transferred to prison itself. This would have meant the group possibly, and in Lesley's case certainly, being separated. At that stage
we were optimistic of the report exonerating most, if not all, of the group and our being able to return home. However, via our lawyers, it
became apparent that the investigating magistrate had had, for whatever reason, a change of heart and by the Thursday 15th had decided
to pass-on ALL of our possessions that had been confiscated to a second panel of expert analysts, this time from the Greek Air Force. These
consisted of notebooks, logbooks and printed material from web-sites etc. We had been thoroughly questioned as to the purpose of our
visit to Greece and the relevance of all the material found in our possession when we came in front of the magistrate in question that pre-
vious Monday so were at a loss as to why it was felt necessary to pass these items on for further scrutiny.

By Thursday 15th November it became apparent to us that our enforced stay would now be even longer than we had hoped: we were then
told, in no uncertain terms, that we could no longer remain in the police cells to which we had all become grudgingly accustomed and that
we would indeed be passed on to the Greek prison system. With heavy hearts, at 8am on Friday 16th November we were separated from
Lesley and taken in handcuffs to Nafplion jail: our home for the next month.

As any spotter can imagine, we were somewhat surprised at having to return to court on a further date to answer this extra charge made against us. ALL of the "information" (purely a log of 39 serial numbers) that we gathered can easily be found in both publications mentioned by name in their report: what the so-called intelligence experts had neglected to do was look under the listings for the Greek Army rather than for the Air Force. For the record, the aircraft we logged at Megara we all see from the public road outside the base or from a public go-kart track next to the perimeter fence. Most aircraft present were 1960's vintage UH-1H Hueys or even older Cessna U-17As. The remainder were the based unit complement of Ch-47DG Chinooks. Quite how two-feet high white serial numbers painted on an olive background can be "classified material" we are still to this day uncertain.

A court hearing date of Tuesday 27th November was fixed and we were again refused bail so had to remain in Nafplion jail until this date.
Countering the accusations made against us in this extra charge involved spending some 11 hours, again, with the investigating magistrate. His recommendation, we were later told, was that he felt that most, if not all of us, were innocent of any charges brought against us and that the case not be pursued in the direction it had taken. For some seven members of the group there was absolutely no material evidence against them whatsoever. We were told that his recommendation for those without this evidence was to free them on unconditional bail and to free the remainder after setting a bail figure as surety. However, his recommendations had yet to be endorsed by the District Public Prosecutor and, unfortunately for us, he disagreed strongly with the magistrate and decided to pursue the espionage charge against us as a group: he deemed those members of the group that had no evidence against them be included in the charge for providing the others in the party with "psychological support", whatever that may mean. To say that we were upset and angry at this counter-decision would be an understatement.

As a matter of due legal process, because of the difference of opinion between the prosecutor and magistrate, our case was then passed-on to a judicial panel consisting of three independent judges from the local court at Kalamata. We were informed that this would take five to seven days and would be concluded faster than is the norm in Greece. Dismayed at the thought of a further week in jail we returned to Nafplion prison after spending the night in our 'old home' at Kalmata police station.

After a further week in prison it became pretty clear that the time-scale
indicated to us was not being met with any great haste. By the following
Tuesday (4th December) we were informed by our lawyers that little or no
progress had been made in the case and that the public prosecutor who
had determined we should still stand trial for espionage had yet to even
pass his recommendations on to the panel of judges. Hearing disappoint-
ing news like this had, by this time, become par for the course and hearing
of further delay didn't come as any great surprise to us. The major head-
ache at this time was that the Christmas period was fast approaching and
that meant that had our case not been processed by 20th December then
we would all have had to remain inside prison until January 7th at the very
earliest. To us it seemed clear that a week had passed and nothing had
been done to expedite a prompt hearing.

By the Friday of that week (7th December) it seemed that still no progress
had been made and by this time we were all beginning to wonder if things
were being 'strung-out' to further detain us in prison. The following day we
were informed that a 36-page written report had been drafted by the
prosecutor at Kalamata court and that, after being typed-up, was finally
ready to be presented to the panel of three judges.

A date for their scrutiny of all paperwork connected to our case was set and we were somewhat encouraged to hear that this would take place the following Tuesday (11th December). Our lawyers expected this panel to take a maximum of two days to assess the strength of the case against us and come to their conclusions as to our impending fate. Should the judges, in their wisdom, have decided to have pursued the charge of espionage against us, this still left time for us to lodge an immediate appeal against their findings at another court.
The most likely outcome, according to legal advice given to us, of this panel's review, was that charges would be removed against those who were found to have no 'evidence' and lessened to a misdemeanour for the rest of the party. At this stage it was indicated to us that bail, if set, would be in the region of £600 to £1,000.

Even at this stage we had no real expectations of an early end to our incarceration: at every pivotal moment up to this point decisions had gone against us. We feared the panel of judges may be unable to come to a decision or, worse still, recommend and initiate proceedings against us under the recommended charges of espionage. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent anxiously awaiting news of a result and, at around lunchtime on Wednesday (12th December) we heard via a phone call that the charges against all of us were to be lowered from the original one of felony (espionage) to that of a misdemeanour ("gathering illegal information"). We were somewhat surprised to learn that all 14 of the party faced identical charges, given the level of 'evidence' against half of the party.