Orestiada, a small Greek town, will host an unusual trial next week as the Municipality of Edirne, a Turkish city bordering Greece, will look for repatriation of an excavator seized by the Greek authorities in May.

"We saved the man but the excavator remained behind," Selçuk Çakır, acting mayor of Edirne told a meeting of municipal council yesterday. He was referring to Musa Alerik, a Turkish worker who accidentally crossed into the Greek side while digging a water well near the border.

Alerik was released briefly after his detention and was handed over to Turkish officials at the Pazarkule border crossing but a Greek court ordered the seizure of the Alerik's excavator since he was unable to show documents that could prove the ownership of the vehicle.