A Greek court on Friday dropped espionage charges against 24 activists involved in rescuing migrants, after a lengthy trial denounced by rights groups and international organizations.
The dramatic development comes against a backdrop of what a top European human rights official described as a “hostile environment” in Greece for rights workers trying to help migrants.
In the ruling read to the chamber, the court admitted to procedural errors, including insufficient translation of prosecution documents.
Photo: AP
They also conceded that the defendants, who include several foreigners, were not given adequate access to interpreters.
The activists — two of whom have spent months in prison — still face an investigation into charges of human trafficking, money laundering, fraud and the unlawful use of radio frequencies.
That investigation is still ongoing, their lawyers said.
After the ruling was announced, Sean Binder, who was arrested in 2018 and spent more than three months in pre-trial detention, said he would have preferred if the case had gone to trial.
“This isn’t justice,” Binder said. “Justice would have been a trial four years ago, where we would have been found innocent.
They were not found not guilty, but instead the charges were thrown out on the basis of a procedural mistake, he told reporters outside the courthouse.
The ruling came just hours after a UN rights official called for the charges to be dropped.
“Trials like this are deeply concerning because they criminalize life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent,” UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said in Geneva.
The European Parliament has branded the trial, which began in November 2021, “the largest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe.”
Among those charged was Syrian Sarah Mardini, sister of Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini, whose family was granted asylum in Germany in 2015.
About 50 humanitarian workers are facing prosecution in Greece. Athens is following a trend in Italy, which has criminalized the provision of aid to migrants.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic on Thursday said there had been concern for several years regarding the “hostile environment” in Greece in which rights activists and journalists work.
“Smear campaigns targeting individuals defending human rights, cumbersome NGO registration procedures and undue pressure on journalists have undermined the protection of human rights, and shrunk the civic space in the country,” she said in a statement.
Mijatovic said that smuggling charges had been brought last month against the Greek spokesperson for the Helsinki Monitor rights group, Panayote Dimitras.
Together with the founder of Norwegian human rights group Aegean Boat Report, Dimitras is accused of being part of a criminal organization to facilitate the illegal entry of asylum seekers into Greece.
“Targeting human rights defenders and individuals engaged in acts of solidarity is both incompatible with states’ international obligations and has a chilling effect on human rights work,” Mijatovic said.
Greece’s conservative government, elected in 2019, has vowed to make the country “less attractive” to migrants.
Part of that strategy involves extending an existing 40km wall on the Turkish border in the Evros region by another 80km.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing Africa and the Middle East seek to enter Greece, Italy and Spain in the hope of better lives in the EU.
Greek authorities have consistently denied that they push back people trying to land on its shores.
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