Syrian swimmer Sarah Mardini cleared by Greek court over migrant rescues

Mardini, who inspired a Netflix film, was among 24 volunteers acquitted by a Greek tribunal for their efforts to prevention migrants from drowning.

A Greek tribunal has acquitted 24 rescue volunteers, including Syrian competitory swimmer and activistic Sarah Mardini, of quality trafficking charges designed to discourage those seeking to prevention migrants and refugees from drowning.

Mardini, whose rescue of her sister inspired the 2022 Netflix movie The Swimmers, and the different volunteers, had been facing the charges since their apprehension successful 2018.

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A tribunal connected the Greek land of Lesbos ruled connected Thursday that volunteers with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a Greek nonprofit, were not blameworthy of charges of facilitating amerciable introduction and forming a transgression organisation.

“All defendants are acquitted of the charges” due to the fact that their purpose was “not to perpetrate transgression acts but to supply humanitarian aid”, presiding Judge Vassilis Papathanassiou told the court.

Mardini, a 30-year-old Syrian who sought refuge successful Germany successful 2015, was contiguous astatine the court, on with her Irish-German co-defendant Sean Binder.

“Saving quality lives is not a crime,” an affectional Mardini said aft the verdict.

“We ne'er did thing amerciable due to the fact that if helping radical is simply a crime, past we are each criminals.”

Mardini was portion of a radical of unpaid activists with the ERCI organisation trying to assistance migrants and refugees scope the land of Lesbos from Turkiye successful 2018. She was arrested astatine the clip and spent 3 months successful situation successful Greece.

Her lawyer, Zaharias Kesses, said it was “unacceptable” for specified high-profile cases to resistance connected for truthful long.

The purpose of specified ineligible action, Kesses argued, “was to criminalise humanitarian assistance and destruct humanitarian organisations. Before this case, thousands of volunteers were connected Lesbos, whereas afterwards they were reduced to a fewer dozen.”

‘Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance’

The Netflix movie The Swimmers is inspired by the communicative of Mardini and her sister Yusra, who was 1 of 10 athletes who competed successful the Rio Olympics for a Refugee Team.

Their household made the perilous travel crossed the Aegean Sea successful 2015, and the sisters saved different radical from drowning on the way.

“These charges should ne'er person been brought to proceedings successful the archetypal place,” Amnesty International said aft the acquittal.

“The EU indispensable besides instrumentality enactment of today’s determination and present stronger safeguards against the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance nether EU law, nary 1 should beryllium punished for trying to help,” Amnesty said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed Amnesty’s statement.

“Two twelve radical were subjected to a seven-year ineligible ordeal connected baseless charges for redeeming lives. These abusive prosecutions person virtually unopen down lifesaving enactment adjacent arsenic radical proceed to drown successful the Aegean,” HRW said.

This is the 2nd clip Greece has brought transgression charges against the volunteers.

In 2023, they were acquitted successful different lawsuit involving offences related to their humanitarian work, including “espionage”.

Several European countries, including Italy, person moved to punish radical who supply life-saving assistance to migrants and refugees.

UN quality rights experts, including Mary Lawlor, the UN peculiar rapporteur connected quality rights defenders, expressed alarm successful December that projected European authorities risked the “criminalisation of life-saving enactment and assistance to victims of quality trafficking, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and different persons successful request of planetary protection, including children”.