1972: Greece Grants Political Asylum to 6 Russian Sailors

ATHENS, Aug. 18 (Reuters) — A Greek government spokesman said here last night that six Russian seamen who arrived in Piraeus on a Soviet trawler Monday would be granted political asylum.

An authoritative source said that the six asked for asylum after the 800-ton Russian trawler Ishon sailed into a bay near Piraeus harbor.

The Soviet chargé d’affaires, Nikolai Kostiounine, had called on Greek Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs Constantine Panayotakos to discuss the issue of the Soviet seamen. The affair will be solved in a friendly way, the spokesman said.

The seamen will be granted political asylum in Greece and the vessel will be handed over to the Soviet authorities, he said.

— The International Herald Tribune, Aug. 19, 1972.