Today, the Greek judge presiding over the trial of relief workers, including Sarah Mardini and Seán Binder, along with 22 others, has decided to drop some of the charges against the foreign defendants (Mardini and Binder), due to the lack of translation of the indictments. As for the remaining Greek defendants, the judge dismissed the espionage charge due to the ambiguity of the allegations.
The trial session began at nine in the morning, with all defendants denying committing any wrongdoing, affirming that everything they did to rescue the lives of migrants crossing the sea was legal under local and international laws.
Nevertheless, Binder and other defendants still face imprisonment of up to 25 years if convicted of separate criminal offenses currently under investigation – but no formal charges have yet been filed.
The relief workers’ legal defense team stated after the ruling that “the decision is not appropriate, and should not be celebrated given that criminal charges are still pending against all defendants, but it is an important first step.”
Speaking to the media on the courthouse steps after the ruling, Seán Binder said the outcome was “not justice.”
“This is not justice; this is the prosecution realizing after four years that they need to issue a translated indictment, an indictment that isn’t entirely vague,” said Binder. “This means we won’t be going to trial, this means we can’t prove our innocence. It’s just a procedural error that means this can’t continue.”
He added, “If this same tactic gets deployed again for the felony trial, which we’re still waiting to happen; it’s fifteen more years of waiting… What we want is justice.”
Sarah and Seán are among 24 rescue workers facing several charges in Greece, including “espionage,” “human smuggling,” and “aiding criminal activity” for assisting migrants who were on the brink of drowning near the Greek shores in 2016 and 2017.
Seán Binder is a swimmer and diver, born in Germany and raised in Ireland. He traveled to the island of Lesbos in 2017 to volunteer with a Greek NGO that conducts search and rescue operations as well as informs authorities of migrants crossing from neighboring Turkey and facing distress at sea.
As for Sarah Mardini, she is a prominent Syrian activist and swimmer whose story inspired the Netflix film “The Swimmers.” She fled alongside her sister, Yusra Mardini, from Syria to Turkey and then to Europe by sea in 2015. During their tumultuous journey, they saved 20 people’s lives, including their own. After their crowded boat’s engine failed in the Aegean sea, they were left with no choice but to jump into the waters and swim, while simultaneously pulling the boat until they reached the Greek shores.
While Yusra was competing on the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Tokyo Olympics in Japan, her sister Sarah was awaiting trial at the hands of the Greek authorities, as one of the 24 relief workers and volunteers aiding migrants on the island of Lesbos, Greece.
“Today, we finally received some positive news after over 4 years of limbo,” announced “Free Humanitarians”, a campaign established to support the accused aid workers, “The judges decided to drop some of the misdemeanor charges due to the error-ridden indictment and the expiration of the statute of limitations for some charges. But this is not justice.”
It added, “If the same strategy of procedural errors and extensive delays is continued for the remaining felony charges, we have another 15 years of limbo before we can prove our innocence. We would not have achieved this small victory without the immense support inside and outside Greece. Our fight for justice continues.”
