The trial of Syrian refugee and activist Sara Mardin, German diver Sean Binder and 22 other members of the Migrant Rescue and Rescue NGO began this Tuesday before the North Aegean Court of Appeal on the Greek island of Lesbos.
Mardini, Binder and 22 others have been charged by Greek judicial authorities with a series of crimes, including espionage and forgery, and could face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
At the first hearing held this Tuesday, the defendants’ lawyers testified and it was decided that the trial will continue until next Friday. Accusations against Mardin and other members Non-governmental organization Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), which operated in Lesbos in 2016-2018, drew a sharp reaction from international human rights organizations.
Amnesty International published on Monday statement In which he describes the charges as “unjust” and “baseless” and notes that 24 ERCI members are charged “simply for helping refugees and migrants at risk of drowning at sea”.
It is stated in the statement released by the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) The charges are based on a Greek police report that contains gross errors, “including claims that some of the defendants participated in rescue missions on various dates when they were not in Greece.”
In addition to the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office of Lesvos opened a criminal investigation against Mardin and Binder for four years for allegedly facilitating the illegal entry of foreigners into the country, belonging to a criminal organization and money laundering. shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 20 years. So far they have not been charged with any crime.
“swimmers”
In 2015, as an asylum seeker from Syria, Mardin traveled to Lesbos from Turkey on an unstable boat. When the engine broke down, he and his younger sister Yusra, who swam for the refugee team at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, rescued the 18 others on board. His story was turned into a movie last year.swimmers“, from the Netflix platform.
After the trip, Sarah enrolled at the Bard College in Berlin, but dropped out for a semester to return to Lesbos as a volunteer with a search and rescue team.
Mardin and Binder were arrested by police on August 21, 2018 and spent more than 100 days in jail before being released on bail. Mardin currently lives in Germany, and according to HRW, he was previously barred from entering Greece to attend his own trial, “a right enshrined in international, European and Greek law”.
“This trial is not about me or Sarah, or even the 22 other defendants. This is an attempt by the Greek authorities to destroy compassion and prevent people from seeking safety,” said Sean Binder, who currently lives in London, Amnesty International said in a statement.
Also among the defendants are Greek Nasos Karakitsos, a trained lifeguard, and Panos Moraitis, the founder of ERCI. A European Parliament report published in 2021 described the case of Mardin and Binder as “the biggest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe”.
Source: El Diario
