Rescue or crime? Trial of humanitarian aid workers in Greece

“I don’t expect anything, but I’m ready for anything,” Dutch citizen Peter Wittenberg told DW.

Wittenberg is one of 24 people on trial in the case Greek island of Lesbos To help Refugees who were crossing the sea From Türkiye to Greece.

The trial will resume in Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, on January 15. It became known as the “Mardini case” after one of the accused, the competitive swimmer and Syrian activist Sarah Mardini.

But this case is not just about the actions of 24 aid workers.

The trial, which is expected to end within days, has become a test of how far European member states can go in prosecuting humanitarian participants on their borders.

Who is Sarah Mardini?

In 2015, Sarah Mardini fled Syria With her younger sister, Yousra. The two crossed the Aegean Sea by boat from Türkiye to Lesbos.

When the overcrowded boat they were traveling in began to sink, the sisters, then 19 and 17 years old and competitive swimmers, jumped into the water and swam for three hours to the Greek shore, pulling the boat behind them.

Thus, they saved the lives of other passengers. The sisters later continued their journey to Germany Balkan routeWhere they applied for asylum.

Yusra Mardini competed in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

Their inspiring story captured the world’s attention and became the subject of the Netflix movie “The Swimmers” and articles in leading fashion magazines that established them as new role models.

In 2016, Sarah Mardini returned to Lesbos to work with Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), an NGO to help other refugees. Two years later, she was arrested and charged with multiple crimes.

Why is Mardini’s trial important?

Five out of 24 Humanitarian aid workers On trial, including Sarah Mardini, were placed in pretrial detention for three months.

The charges against Mardini and the other defendants include espionage, aiding smuggling networks, membership in a criminal organization, and money laundering. If found guilty, they face up to 20 years in prison.

The case has been called “the largest criminalization of solidarity in Europe.”

A conviction would deal a heavy blow not only to humanitarian action, but also to basic human rights at a time when Europe and Greece are adopting increasingly restrictive policies. Immigration policies.

A conviction in this case would set a legal precedent, both in Greece and in Europe.

It also sends the message that helping refugees can lead to criminal charges and severe penalties, which may deter volunteers and NGOs from making a constructive contribution to the refugee cause.

More than seven years in limbo

Mardini was arrested along with German-Irish national Sean Bender and Greek national Nasos Karakitsos on 21 August 2018 and sentenced to three months in prison before being released on bail in late 2018.

They were then charged with espionage, money laundering, illegal use of radio frequencies, and document forgery.

in January 2023The Mytilene Misdemeanor Court rejected these charges due to lack of evidence and procedural errors.

Seven years after their arrest, the defense claims that doubts remain about the origin and legal nature of the initial evidence.

In early December 2025, the North Aegean Court of Appeal in Lesbos began hearings on additional charges, including human trafficking and membership in a criminal organization.

What is the evidence?

Speaking to DW after the second day of the trial on December 5, Sean Bender said: “One would have thought that after months of investigation and seven years of delay, there would be a lot of evidence against us, a convincing argument as to why we should be convicted.”

Binder went on to say that the prosecution’s witness, a Coast Guard officer, “undermined the basic premise of the prosecution’s case, asserting that we cooperated with him.”

Prosecutors say Mardini and others used humanitarian work as a cover to facilitate smuggling networks.

Her defense says there is no evidence of criminal intent and that her actions were only intended to save lives at open sea and provide assistance to people in distress.

Mardini’s lawyer, Zakaria Kissis, also says that the humanitarian mission in which Sarah Mardini participated communicated with the Greek coastal authorities and exchanged information with them.

Was help necessary?

Lesbos-based journalist Anthy Paziano has been covering the refugee crisis on Lesbos for a decade. She is very familiar with the situation on the island in 2015, when the number of Syrians arriving in Greece peaked.

Paziano points out that humanitarian work was very important at the time due to the lack of institutional support for refugees and the fact that the island was overcrowded by the influx of refugees arriving by sea.

“The volunteers organized the refugees’ food and documents, and were in direct contact with the police,” she told DW.

NGOs criticize this issue

“Letting people die is a crime,” says Michalis Bakas, an activist based on the island of Lesbos. “It’s crazy what’s happening and so many people have been suffering for so many years.”

For the past seven years, human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have followed the case closely.

“The accusations are baseless and must be dropped immediately,” said Wes de Greiff, Executive Director of Amnesty International Flanders, Belgium.

“This trial should not have happened in the first place. We are very concerned. What we are seeing is the criminalization of solidarity,” he told DW.

Also speaking to DW, Christos Dimopoulos, of Amnesty International Greece, said: “This case highlights the general framework of how Greece and Europe currently deal with migration flows and creates a narrative around human rights that is not positive at all.”

Human Rights Watch has condemned the criminalization of rescue missions Such as those in which Mardini participated, and In 2023, the European Parliament called for more EU action to save lives at sea.

Sofia Koufopoulou, an independent researcher on migration flows to Greece, has been monitoring the flow of refugees to Lesbos for more than 20 years. According to Koufopoulou, the narrative around immigration has changed in Europe – especially in Greece.

“When we were talking about solidarity and humanitarian aid in Germany and Greece in 2015, volunteer work was praised. We have now entered an era where The Greek Immigration Minister himself classifies migrants inappropriately “For a government that is supposed to belong to the centre-right,” Kouvopoulou told DW.

The defense criticizes the Greek judiciary

The defense claims that neither the Public Prosecutor nor the President of the Court of Appeal, who referred the case to trial, reviewed or evaluated the case. She says they both failed to realize the complete lack of evidence.

“The case should not have reached the courtroom because it does not meet the requirements. Most of them have already been decided in 2023,” Kisses, Sarah Mardini’s lawyer, told DW.

He also criticizes the fact that the Greek judiciary failed to deal with the Mardini case quickly and effectively.

What comes next?

“We are entering the final stage of the trial and are awaiting with great interest the evaluation of all the evidence we have presented,” Kisses told DW.

The defendants are also looking forward to the conclusion of the trial, which lasted for eight years and put them under great mental stress.

Defendant Nasos Karakitsos told DW: “We cannot wait to return on January 15 and 16 and end this nightmare, because it is a nightmare for us.”

Karakitsos stresses the importance of a positive outcome for humanitarian aid workers in general, saying, “It would be good – not just for us, but for everyone who came to the islands and helped us all those years.”

The ruling is expected to be issued on January 16 or 17. Whatever the outcome, legal experts say the ruling could shape how humanitarian work is conducted and monitored on Europe’s borders.

Edited by: Angel Flanagan