Mardini, who inspired the Netflix film, was one of 24 volunteers acquitted by a Greek court for their efforts to save migrants from drowning.
A Greek court has acquitted 24 rescue volunteers, including a Syrian competitive swimmer and an activist. Sara MardiniHuman trafficking charges designed to deter those seeking to save migrants and refugees from drowning.
Mardini, whose rescue of his sister inspired the 2022 Netflix film The Swimmers and other volunteers, has been facing charges since his arrest in 2018.
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A court on the Greek island of Lesbos ruled Thursday that volunteers from the Greek nonprofit Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) are not guilty of charges of illegal entry and forming a criminal organization.
“All the defendants are acquitted of the charges” because their purpose was “not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid,” presiding judge Vassilis Papathanassio told the court.
Mardini, a 30-year-old Syrian who gained asylum in Germany in 2015, was in court with her Irish-German co-defendant Sean Binder.
“Saving human life is not a crime,” an emotional Mardini said after the verdict.
“We have never done anything illegal because if helping people is a crime, we are all criminals.”
Mardini was part of a group of volunteer activists from the ERCI organization trying to help migrants and refugees reach the island of Lesbos from Turkey in 2018. She was arrested at the time and spent three months in prison in Greece.
Her lawyer, Zaharias Keses, said it was “unacceptable” for such high-profile cases to drag on for so long.
The goal of such legal action, Keses argued, “was to criminalize humanitarian aid and alienate humanitarian organizations. Before this case, there were thousands of volunteers on Lesbos, but later they were reduced to a few dozen.”
‘Criminalization of Humanitarian Aid’
The Netflix film The Swimmers is inspired by the story of Mardini and her sister Yusra, who was one of 10 athletes who competed in the Rio Olympics for the refugee team.
Their family made a perilous journey across the Aegean Sea in 2015, and the sisters saved other people from drowning along the way.
Following the acquittal, Amnesty International said, “These allegations should not have been brought to trial in the first place.
“The EU should also take note of today’s decision and introduce stronger safeguards under EU law against the criminalization of humanitarian assistance, ensuring that no one is punished for trying to help,” Amnesty said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed Amnesty’s statement.
“Two dozen people faced a seven-year legal ordeal over baseless accusations of saving lives. These humiliating trials have virtually shut down the work of saving lives even as people drown in the Aegean,” HRW said.
This is the second time Greece has brought criminal charges against volunteers.
In 2023, he was acquitted in a second case involving crimes related to his humanitarian work, including “espionage”.
Many European countries, including ItalyIt has moved to punish people who provide life-saving assistance to migrants and refugees.
UN human rights expert Mary Lawler, the UN’s special representative on human rights defenders, expressed alarm in December that the proposed European law threatened “the criminalization of life-saving action and assistance to human trafficking, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and other persons in need of international protection, including children”.