Athens.
Honored in Germany, imprisoned in Greece: why the swimmer Sarah Mardini from Berlin faces a long prison sentence.
For many they are heroes. But the Greek judiciary prosecutes them as criminals. The trial against 24 employees of the aid organization Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) resumed on the Aegean island of Lesvos on Tuesday.
threaten the accused imprisonment for people smuggling, money laundering, espionage and forming a criminal organization. Human rights organizations see the process as an attempt to criminalize the work of refugee workers in Greece, drive out aid organizations and deter migrants.
The most prominent defendant in the trial is 27-year-old Sarah Mardini. She grew up in Damascus with her parents and younger sister Yusra. In 2015, the two fled sisters To Turkey. From there they wanted to cross the Aegean to the Greek island of Lesbos. But before they reached the safe shore, the engine of the dinghy stopped.
Greece: There is no film about Sarah’s second story
Sarah and Yusra, trained competitive swimmers, jumped overboard and pulled the dinghy with its 18 occupants ashore while swimming. From Greece, the sisters came to Germany via the Balkan route. Her story went around the world. In 2016 they were awarded a Bambi as “Silent Heroines”. Yusra Mardini swam at two Olympics, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2020 in Tokyo. Netflix turned the “incredible true story” into The Swimmers in 2022.
But there’s a second story that doesn’t appear in the film. It plays in the years 2016 to 2018. Sarah Mardini was from Berlin Lesvos returned to work as a volunteer for the aid organization ERCI. The organization looked after refugees, including in the notorious Camp Moria. When Mardini wanted to fly back to Germany on August 21, 2018, she was arrested at Lesbos Airport and taken into custody.
Also interesting: Moria refugee camp: “It’s worse than in prison”
It’s about people smuggling and espionage
The public prosecutor’s office accuses her and the 23 co-defendants, among other things, of having worked with people smugglers in Turkey migrants to infiltrate After 106 days in custody, Mardini was released from custody on bail of 5,000 euros and was able to return to Germany.
Also read: Frontex: Illegal border crossings in the EU are increasing significantly
Four and a half years later it comes to trial. It’s about espionage and forgery. Up to eight years imprisonment. Another one is running at the same time investigative proceedings against the accused of people smuggling, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering. Donations had been embezzled, the aid organization was in fact a “criminal network”. A court could impose up to 25 years in prison for this.
Entry ban against the accused
Mardini and the co-defendants deny the allegations. The human rights organization Amnesty International calls the process a “farce“. The accused “did only what any of us would do if we had been in their place,” says Nils Muiznieks of Amnesty International. The trial shows that the Greek authorities “are leaving no stone unturned to stop humanitarian aid and deter migrants”.
To the absurdities of the trial that Sarah Mardini has not yet been able to appear in court in her own trial. The Greek authorities have imposed an entry ban on them. Apparently, they want to prevent her from defending herself in court. She is represented by a lawyer.
EU Parliament: Biggest case of criminalizing refugee solidarity
Critics place the process in a larger context. They see in the procedure further evidence of a strategy deterrence: The Greek government wants to avoid anything that could give people seeking protection an incentive to come to Greece.
A June 2021 European Parliament inquiry called the trial “the biggest case in history criminalization of Refugee Solidarity in Europe”. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch speaks of a “politically motivated process” whose aim is to intimidate aid organizations and prevent them from doing their work.
“The Greek authorities are prosecuting the accused for saving the lives of people the authorities did not believe should be saved,” said Human Rights Watch’s Bill Van Esveld. legal experts expect the trial of Mardini and her co-defendants to last weeks or months.
Also interesting: The number of asylum seekers has increased by half this year
Charged as a smuggler because he was at the helm
A case from December 2020 shows how fine the line is in Greece between refugee aid and crime. At that time, a court on the island of Chios sentenced three young men from Afghanistan to prison terms of between 50 and 142 years. Smugglers had them in with other migrants inflatable boats brought from Turkey across the Aegean Sea.
Halfway there, the people smugglers would have forced him at gunpoint to take the controls of the outboard motor and deal with a dinghy escaped, reports one of the three Afghans, Hanad Abdi Mohammad. When the boat got into distress off Chios, the Greek coast guard came to the aid of the migrants.
Because 28-year-old Mohammad was behind the wheel, he was arrested and charged with smuggling. After one launched in Greece in 2014 Law Smugglers face up to 15 years in prison for every person they smuggle in. In the case of Hanad Abdi Mohammad, that added up to 142 years. He is serving his sentence in Chios prison.
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