Ten months after the dramatic December 2025 protest at Heraklion Airport, the runway has been left behind. The legal consequences have not.
Sixty-two farmers and livestock breeders are now being called to explain themselves as part of the preliminary investigation into the events of December 8, 2025, when a major agricultural protest spilled onto the grounds and runway of Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis Airport.
The images traveled far beyond Crete. Now the paperwork is traveling through police stations.
The people being investigated have not yet faced a court judgment. A preliminary investigation is underway, evidence is being examined, and each person’s individual involvement is supposed to be assessed separately. The case includes allegations of transport disruption, disturbance of public peace, damage, and bodily harm, among other matters reported by local media.
Sixty-Two Names, One Very Big Question
According to lawyer Giorgos Stiakakis, the police file includes photographs and video from inside and outside the airport. Police have called the 62 people identified to give written explanations before prosecutors decide what happens next.
Being called to provide explanations is not the same thing as being convicted.
The preliminary examination is the stage at which authorities are supposed to examine the evidence and each person’s role.
Those called include members of the Heraklion Livestock Breeders’ Association leadership, including current president Kostas Frogakis and former president Lefteris Triantafyllakis.
And Triantafyllakis is not exactly backing away from what happened.
“We Will Do It Again”
Speaking to Nea Kriti, Triantafyllakis said the farmers went onto the streets to demand the right to live and work with dignity.
He disputes the characterization of what happened inside the airport and says the farmers caused no damage there. He also alleges that violence outside the airport involved police use of tear gas, stun grenades and plastic bullets.
Those are his claims, not established findings of the investigation.
He also says video footage and airport cameras will show who initiated the confrontation.
His position is blunt: the farmers were angry, they felt abandoned, and they are not frightened by the prospect of further legal action.
If necessary, he says, they will do it again. This shows how deeply the confrontation has embedded itself in the relationship between Crete’s agricultural community and the authorities.
The Part Nobody Gets to Ignore
The economic desperation that drives people onto the streets does not magically disappear when police open a file.
Stiakakis himself makes that distinction. He does not argue that unlawful acts should simply be ignored. His argument is that the circumstances surrounding the protest, the individual conduct of each person, and the reasons behind the mobilization must also be examined
The December 2025 mobilization was part of a much wider confrontation involving Crete’s agricultural and livestock sectors, with producers protesting issues surrounding their livelihoods and the fallout from the wider agricultural subsidy scandal. The airport became the flashpoint.
Now the consequences have reached the police stations.
According to reporting on the case, the preliminary investigation is expected to continue before the file goes to the prosecutor, who will assess the evidence and determine whether the legal conditions for prosecution have been met.
Crete Has Not Forgotten December 8
For anyone watching Crete from outside the island, it can be tempting to reduce the story to one spectacular image: farmers on an airport runway, police confronting protesters, flights disrupted, chaos.
For the people standing there, the protest was about something much more basic: whether they could continue making a living from the land and their animals.
Months later, the consequences of the protest are moving through the legal system. Sixty-two people have been identified and are being called to explain their actions as part of a preliminary investigation into the events of December 8. Depending on the case, the investigation concerns alleged offenses relating to aviation safety, disturbance of public peace, damage to vehicles, and bodily harm.
Nobody has been convicted simply because their name appears in the investigation. Investigators must examine each person’s involvement separately, and the preliminary process addresses those questions.
