Greece adjourns trial of 24 volunteers who helped migrants reach Lesbos, immediately sends case to appeals court
- Group, accused of helping a ‘criminal’ non-profit search-and-rescue organisation, says it wanted to help save lives
- Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups say all charges should be dropped
The trial of two dozen humanitarian activists who helped migrants reach Greece three years ago was adjourned on Thursday shortly after opening and moved to an appeals court.
The activists, who are accused of espionage, forgery and assisting a criminal organisation, helped migrants reach the island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Greek authorities of “criminalising rescuers”.
“The court ruled that it was not competent to judge this case,” defence lawyer Haris Petsikos told media outside the court. The case was moved to an appeals court as a lawyer is among those accused, Petsikos said. No date was given for the new trial.
Two of the defendants, Syrian refugee Sarah Mardini and Irish-born German citizen Sean Binder, previously spent more than three months in police custody and face five-year jail terms if convicted.
“I feel very angry … because we have to wait years more,” said rescue diver Binder, 27. “There’s no semblance of fair trial,” he added, charging that the legal limbo was blocking independent rescue efforts and costing lives at sea.
Mardini is a Syria-born competitive swimmer whose sister Yusra Mardini was part of the refugee swimming team at the Olympic Games in 2016 and this year.
The sisters saved 18 fellow refugees from possible death in 2015, jumping into the sea to push and pull their packed dinghy to Lesbos after its engine failed shortly after leaving Turkey.
Sarah now lives in Berlin and has a court ban on returning to Greece.
On her Instagram account, she expressed frustration with the delay. “It’s frustrating that we have to wait more and redo everything we were working on,” she said. “But I’m optimistic because we are not alone and the people are fighting for us and with us.”
The activists are on trial for their alleged affiliation with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a non-profit search-and-rescue group that operated on Lesbos and in Greek waters from 2016 to 2018.
Greek prosecutors liken ERCI search-and-rescue operations to a smuggling crime ring and are investigating its fundraising for potential money laundering.
ERCI was registered as a non-governmental organisation and regularly cooperated with Greek authorities on rescue missions.
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The arrests forced the group to cease operations, which included providing medical care and informal education to migrants and asylum seekers.
Twenty-four people have drowned so far in 2021 in the eastern Mediterranean trying to enter Europe, including four children, HRW said.
The volunteers maintain that they simply wanted to help save lives when the island of Lesbos was overwhelmed by refugee and migrant arrivals from nearby Turkey. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights groups say the charges should be dropped.
“The charges perversely misrepresent the group’s search-and-rescue operations as a smuggling crime ring,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement ahead of the trial.
More than a million migrants and refugees, many escaping war in Iraq and Syria, travelled to Lesbos and other Greek islands from Turkey in 2015-16, with most moving on to Germany and other EU countries.
The Greek government has taken a tougher line with illegal and irregular migration in recent years, intercepting boats at sea and extending a steel wall along its land border with Turkey. It denies frequent allegations by migrant advocacy groups that it carries out summary deportations, also known as pushbacks.
