A group of aid workers on trial in Greece for rescuing migrants on the island of Lesbos has been acquitted of all charges.
The 24 former volunteers were arrested seven years ago – accused of human trafficking and other offenses – and could face up to 20 years in prison.
They worked with an NGO that rescued asylum-seekers at risk of drowning between 2015 and 2018, when hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed the narrow straits from Turkey to Greece.
Their case has been widely criticized by aid agencies and human rights campaigners as an attempt to criminalize humanitarian aid, and is seen as having major implications for migration policy across Europe.
The defendants, who work for the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), include former Syrian migrant and former competitive swimmer Sara Mardini, who returned to Lesbos to save other refugees, and whose story is told in the Netflix drama, The Swimmers.
He and others were arrested in 2018. They were cleared of several charges, including espionage, in 2023but their trial on the remaining charges of facilitating the illegal entry of foreigners into Greece, money-laundering and membership in a criminal organization only began last month.
“All the accused were acquitted of the charges” because their purpose was “not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid”, presiding judge Vassilis Papathanassiou said in court on Thursday.
Prosecutor Dimitris Smyrnis had previously recommended their acquittal, stressing that “no independent basis establishing the criminal liability of the defendants has been shown”.
During the trial, the court heard evidence from a senior police officer who testified about the defendants’ use of an encrypted messaging service, WhatsApp, to share information about the location and status of boats carrying migrants.
He testified that the information was not shared with the Greek authorities. But a Greek coast guard officer, Stavros Gagarellis, gave evidence that the volunteers worked closely with his organization.
The judge ruled that “an internet communication group cannot be considered a criminal organization,” saying: “Waiting to save a human life cannot be considered facilitating illegal entry.
“None of the defendants tried to act in such a way as to allow any of the transported persons – refugees or otherwise – to evade the scrutiny of the authorities,” he added.
Zacharias Kesses, the lawyer of Sara Mardini and another defendant, Sean Binder, said after the verdict: “I am amazed that it took 2,889 days for the prosecutor to realize that the accusation has no meaning whatsoever – something that everyone already knows except him.”
Binder, an Irish-German lawyer who, together with Mardini, was held in pre-trial detention for three months in 2018, said: “Now it’s a relief and anger cocktail, equally balanced. Obviously I’m very relieved that I’m not going back to prison. But I’m also angry that it took so long to get here.”
Binder, now 31, also spoke about how the allegations have affected his life: “I spent the last seven years in limbo. I was hoping to have a job, a career, some savings by now. I was hoping to be a father. I trained as a lawyer, but I wasn’t allowed to represent my clients until I was acquitted.”
Eve Geddie of the human rights organization Amnesty International said: “We hope that today’s decision sends a strong signal to Greece and other European countries that solidarity, compassion and the defense of human rights should be protected and celebrated, not punished.”
A BBC radio documentary about the case, “Assignment: Greece-Rescuers on Trial” will be broadcast on the BBC World Service on Tuesday, January 20, and will be available on BBC Sounds.