MYTILENE, Greece — In a landmark decision that concludes one of Europe’s most high-profile cases involving the “criminalization of solidarity,” a Greek court on Thursday, January 15, 2026, acquitted 24 humanitarian workers of all felony charges. The verdict, delivered in a packed courtroom on the island of Lesbos, ends a grueling 2,897-day legal ordeal for the volunteers who had faced up to 20 years in prison for saving migrants at sea.
Presiding Judge Vassilis Papathanassiou delivered the unanimous ruling, stating that “waiting to rescue a human life cannot be considered facilitation of illegal entry.” The court found that the defendants’ objective was strictly to provide humanitarian aid, not to commit criminal acts.
The Profile of the Accused
The defendants were affiliated with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), a search-and-rescue group active on Lesbos between 2016 and 2018. Among those exonerated are:
- Sarah Mardini: A Syrian refugee whose life story inspired the Netflix film The Swimmers. She and her sister famously saved 18 fellow refugees in 2015 by swimming their sinking dinghy to shore.
- Seán Binder: A German-Irish volunteer and trained lawyer.
- Nassos Karakitsos: A Greek rescue diver and former naval officer.
Mardini and Binder had previously spent more than 100 days in pre-trial detention following their initial arrest in August 2018.
A “Flimsy” Prosecution Collapses
The prosecution had alleged that the aid workers were part of a criminal organization involved in people smuggling, money laundering, and espionage. However, the trial revealed significant gaps in evidence. The court heard that much of the “incriminating” activity involved standard humanitarian operations, such as using WhatsApp to coordinate rescue locations with authorities and purchasing laundry machines for refugee camps.
| Charge | Court Finding |
| People Smuggling | Dismissed: Intent was life-saving, not illegal facilitation. |
| Criminal Organization | Dismissed: Online communication groups are not criminal networks. |
| Money Laundering | Dismissed: No evidence of illicit funding or personal profit. |
| Espionage | Dismissed (2023): Charges previously thrown out for lack of proof. |
The “Chilling Effect” on Humanitarian Aid
While the acquittal is a total victory for the defendants, human rights groups describe the outcome as “bittersweet.” Defense lawyer Zacharias Kesses noted that the nearly eight-year delay has already achieved a “deterrent effect,” causing many NGOs to withdraw from the Aegean Sea to avoid similar legal risks.
“I feel delighted that I don’t spend the next 20 years in a Greek prison, but I also feel angry that we’ve had to wait this long for the obvious,” Seán Binder told reporters outside the court. “This should never have gotten this far.”
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on European governments to stop the “abusive prosecution” of human rights defenders and to refocus on preventing the rising number of preventable deaths at sea.
Lady Justice Statue, Dublin, Irl Image by getarchive.net (Public Domain)
