Two 23-year old German nationals were sentenced by a court in Chania, Crete on Monday for taking down the Greek flag down from a flagpole and raising the German flag in its place.
The incident happened several days ago on the island of Crete near Chania, at an archaeological site next to the sea.
People noticed that instead of the Greek flag which was normally flying on the spot, a new, German flag was waving in the breeze.
Local authorities were informed about the incident immediately, and they managed to arrest the two young men who were responsible for the action.
During their trial on Monday, the German men said that they regret their action and claimed that they did not intend to insult the Greek people.
They claimed that they were just very happy to have climbed to that point, and they wanted to raise the German flag for that reason. They also claimed that their intentions were not maleficent, because they had left the Greek flag at the site, with a rock on top of it, so that the wind wouldn’t blow it away.
The two Germans were given a suspended sentence of ten months imprisonment.
