Tommy Olsen's trial in Rhodes postponed to April 2027
Panayote Dimitras, Fair Trials' LEAP member, also faced the same trial
Tommy Olsen’s trial was postponed until 6 April 2027, following a request from the defence. Also facing trial were our LEAP member Panayote Dimitras, legal administrator and representative of the NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor, and two refugees.
Following the postponement, Fair Trials spoke with Panayote Dimitras:
“This case suffers from a very large number of procedural illegalities that, combined with several equally illegal decisions, the judicial authorities have ignored, as they were determined to drag us to court more than five years after the facts, despite case law of acquittals by this same court, and by other courts, in almost identical cases.”
Olsen and Dimitras are charged, together with two other third-country nationals, with offences including participation in a criminal organisation and facilitating the entry and stay of third-country nationals. Both deny the charges.
Fair Trials has already raised concerns about both cases. In 2022, it denounced the criminalisation of solidarity and the judicial harassment of Panayote Dimitras and the Greek Helsinki Monitor. In March 2026, it highlighted a documented and growing pattern in Greece of serious criminal charges and coercive pre-trial measures against activists and human rights defenders who monitor, document and report on human rights violations at Europe’s borders. Fair Trials has said that when those who expose abuses become the accused, the justice system risks being used to punish the people who demand accountability, with a chilling effect on civil society as a whole.
Olsen is also subject to a European Arrest Warrant issued by Greece. The Hålogaland Court of Appeal in Norway refused to execute it on 15 May.
Fair Trials continues to call on EU institutions to address the growing misuse of the European Arrest Warrant as a tool of pressure rather than justice.
