After more than four years of waiting, the Court of Appeal of the Greek island of Lesbos canceled the procedure. Among the accused is Sara Mardini, who inspired with her sister the film “Les Nageuses”.
by Marina Rafenberg (Athens, Correspondence)
“Today is a first step in the right direction … towards justice!” Exclaims Grace O’Sullivan, MEP (Green) Irish, at the exit of the Court of Appeal of the Greek island of Lesbos, where twenty-four humanitarian workers had been prosecuted for more than four years for “spying”, “migrant traffic” and “money laundering”. The court judge canceled, Friday, January 13, the procedure for “espionage”, against Sean Binder, a German-Irish national, and Sara Mardini, a Syrian refugee who inspired with her sister, Olympic swimmer, The film Les Nageuses, by Sally El Hosaini. This decision stems from important procedural defects: lack of translation of the indictment to foreign volunteers from the Non -Government Organization, forgetting a page in the documents provided to the lawyers of the accused …
Amnesty International described this trial, postponed several times, as “farce”. According to Human Rights Watch, the charges chosen against the NGO volunteers were “without foundations”. Sara Mardini and Sean Binder, accused in police reports of having repeatedly facilitated the passage of migrants to Greece, were not even present in Lesbos at the time of the facts. Likewise, they are accused of having used sea radios or exchanging on WhatsApp with other NGOs on the potential arrival of migrant canoes on the island. However, underlines Sean Binder, “the Greek coast guard were aware, we worked hand in hand to avoid shipwrecks”.
“The file mounted against us by the police is mind-blowing, filled with errors, like this legal proceedings”, continues the young man of 29, who says he lived all these years with “a sword of Damocles above from his head “. Wanting to become a lawyer, he could not pass the bar in London, where he studied, because of this procedure. Sara Mardini, now installed in Berlin, was diagnosed with symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress after her arrest in August 2018 and three months spent in the Greek jails. Nassos Karakitsos, also on the accused bench, is subject to a ban on leaving Greek territory: “I had to give up job offers with NGOs in Ukraine or on rescue ships between Libya and L ‘Italy… and unfortunately our hell is not over yet. “
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