Seán Binder, Sarah Mardini and more than 20 other humanitarian workers were acquitted yesterday by a court in Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos, of charges related to facilitating the illegal entry of migrants into Greece.
The 24 defendants, who were arrested in 2018, had worked with the now-defunct Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI). They faced charges including membership of a criminal organisation, facilitation of the entry of third-country nationals, and money laundering, offences carrying potential sentences of up to 20 years in prison under Greek law.
In 2023, the court dropped several misdemeanour charges, including espionage. Fair Trials welcomed that decision at the time, while stressing that the prosecution of the humanitarian workers came from a misuse of criminal justice powers by the Greek authorities. We also called on Greece to drop all remaining charges and investigations against those involved.
Three years later, justice prevailed. Delivering the verdict yesterday, presiding judge Vassilis Papathanassiou stated that “all the defendants are acquitted of the charges”, finding that their objective was “not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid”.
The court heard evidence from a former senior police officer alleging that the aid workers used the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp to share information about the location and condition of boats carrying migrants. However, the judge ruled that “a communication group on the internet cannot be regarded as a criminal organisation”.
Zacharias Kesses, the lawyer representing Sarah Mardini, Seán Binder and four other search-and-rescue workers, described the case, which lasted 2,889 days, as “an attempt by the authorities to criminalise humanitarian assistance so that all of these aid organisations would leave Lesbos”.
The acquittals come against the backdrop of Greece’s increasingly restrictive migration policies. Since 2019, the government has expanded border security measures, including fences and maritime patrols, and in July temporarily suspended the processing of asylum claims from migrants arriving from North Africa. Under a 2021 law aimed at preventing large-scale migration from the Middle East and Asia, individuals assisting migrants to reach Greek territory risk prosecution for offences such as facilitating illegal entry or supporting a criminal organisation.
Fair Trials Europe welcomes this verdict as an important victory for human rights and the rule of law.
This case illustrates how criminal justice powers can be misapplied to pursue baseless allegations, turning humanitarian actors into defendants in prolonged and damaging proceedings. Even where acquittals eventually follow, the personal, professional, and psychological costs of years spent under unjust prosecution are very real and cannot be undone
However, the case highlights the severe personal cost of prolonged and unjust prosecutions. Seán Binder and Sarah Mardini were both held in pre-trial detention for three months in 2018. Reflecting on the impact of this, Binder said:
“I’ve spent the past seven years in limbo. I had hoped to have a job, a career, and some savings by now. I’d hoped to be able to be a father. I’m trained as a lawyer, but I wasn’t allowed to represent my clients until I was acquitted.”
