Rights groups hail acquittal after seven years of aid workers prosecuted during Greece refugee crisis | Greece
Two dozen aid workers who faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of smuggling migrants to Greece were acquitted by a court in Lesbos.
The verdict was greeted with cheers, tears and screams of joy as the presiding judge announced his remarks, ending the seven-year legal ordeal of humanitarian workers. All 24 people participated in rescue efforts on the Aegean island during the height of the refugee crisis.
“It took 2,897 days for the justice system to realize the obvious,” said attorney Zacharias Kesses, who represented the six defendants. “Today, the three-member high criminal court of the Northern Aegean made a bold decision.”
The European Parliament called the investigations “the largest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe” and the proceedings were closely watched internationally.
Human rights groups have spoken of a testing moment for the treatment of humanitarian workers across the continent, with tolerance for aid work waning as immigration policies tighten. Greece, a border state, has been accused of forcibly expelling migrants from land and sea borders for years, with pushbacks particularly common in the Aegean. The centre-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has rejected the dismissals but described the policies as “strict but fair”.
Ahead of Thursday’s hearings, which will continue six weeks after the criminal trial began on Lesbos, Human Rights Watch called the case a “perverse misrepresentation of life-saving humanitarian work.” He called on Greek authorities to drop the “baseless” accusations.
“The acquittals are a sign of vindication for the defendants, but they are bittersweet at the same time,” said Eva Cosse, senior researcher in the group’s Europe and Central Asia division. “As people continue to drown in the Aegean, these abusive investigations have virtually halted life-saving efforts. Greek authorities must stop criminalizing solidarity, end pushback and prioritize saving lives.”
Among the defendants were Sara Mardini, the Syrian refugee immortalized in the Netflix film The Swimmers, and Sean Binder, a German-born Irishman who, like Mardini, spent 100 days behind bars following his trial in 2018. They were of different ages at the time of their arrest; Most aid workers were in their 20s and 30s, with some in their early 70s.
At a time when the then-bankrupt country was trying to cope with the influx of Syrians fleeing the civil war, all of these people, bound together by the same idealistic desire to help, had volunteered for the search-and-rescue organization ERCI. The now-disbanded aid group was headquartered on Lesbos, one of the islands closest to the Turkish coast and quickly becoming a magnet for refugees.
Greek police alleged that aid workers facilitated the illegal entry of migrants by monitoring radio signals at sea and using encrypted messaging apps to receive advance notification of the location of smuggler boats sailing from the Turkish coast.
Among the lesser charges the defendants faced was espionage. A court threw out that charge in January 2023, citing insufficient evidence, and supporters welcomed the dismissal as a demonstration of the volunteers’ innocence. Rights groups called the accusation “absurd.”
Previously, when the defendants testified before the court, they argued that their work was legitimate human rights work aimed at helping people on the move, who were often in danger of drowning, trying to reach safety.
Reacting to the decision, Binder said: “The court reached the only decision it could make today, based on the limited legal basis of the accusations and the flimsy evidence presented by the prosecutor.”
Binder described the grueling effects of lives suspended due to lengthy criminal trials. The trainee lawyer, who was first detained at the age of 24, is now 31 years old.
“It’s a huge relief that I won’t be spending the next 20 years in a prison cell, but it’s also concerning that that’s a possibility,” he said.
“Today, as it always should be, it has become clear that providing life-saving humanitarian aid is an obligation, not a crime. Using WhatsApp is normal, not evidence of a crime. Buying a washing machine for a refugee camp does not make anyone a money launderer. This acquittal must set a precedent.”
Amnesty International, which sent delegations to Lesbos to monitor the trial, said it hoped Thursday’s verdict would send a “strong signal” to Greece and other European countries that “defending human rights should be protected and celebrated, not punished.”
