Mardini, who inspired a Netflix film, was among 24 volunteers acquitted by a Greek court for their efforts to save migrants from drowning.

A Greek court has acquitted 24 rescue volunteers, including Syrian competitive swimmer and activist Sarah Mardini, of human trafficking charges designed to discourage those seeking to save migrants and refugees from drowning.

Mardini, whose rescue of her sister inspired the 2022 Netflix film The Swimmers, and the other volunteers, had been facing the charges since their arrest in 2018.

A court on the Greek island of Lesbos ruled on Thursday that volunteers with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a Greek nonprofit, were not guilty of charges of facilitating illegal entry and forming a criminal organisation.

“All defendants are acquitted of the charges” because their aim was “not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid”, presiding Judge Vassilis Papathanassiou told the court.

Mardini, a 30-year-old Syrian who sought refuge in Germany in 2015, was present at the court, along with her Irish-German co-defendant Sean Binder.

“Saving human lives is not a crime,” an emotional Mardini said after the verdict.

“We never did anything illegal because if helping people is a crime, then we are all criminals.”

Mardini was part of a group of volunteer activists with the ERCI organisation trying to help migrants and refugees reach the island of Lesbos from Turkiye in 2018. She was arrested at the time and spent three months in prison in Greece.

Her lawyer, Zaharias Kesses, said it was “unacceptable” for such high-profile cases to drag on for so long.

The aim of such legal action, Kesses argued, “was to criminalise humanitarian aid and eliminate humanitarian organisations. Before this case, thousands of volunteers were on Lesbos, whereas afterwards they were reduced to a few dozen.”

‘Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance’

The Netflix film The Swimmers is inspired by the story of Mardini and her sister Yusra, who was one of 10 athletes who competed in the Rio Olympics for a Refugee Team.

Their family made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea in 2015, and the sisters saved other people from drowning along the way.

“These charges should never have been brought to trial in the first place,” Amnesty International said after the acquittal.

“The EU must also take note of today’s decision and introduce stronger safeguards against the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance under EU law, no one should be punished for trying to help,” Amnesty said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed Amnesty’s statement.

“Two dozen people were subjected to a seven-year legal ordeal on baseless charges for saving lives. These abusive prosecutions have virtually shut down lifesaving work even as people continue to drown in the Aegean,” HRW said.

This is the second time Greece has brought criminal charges against the volunteers.

In 2023, they were acquitted in another case involving offences related to their humanitarian work, including “espionage”.

Several European countries, including Italy, have moved to punish people who provide life-saving assistance to migrants and refugees.

UN human rights experts, including Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, expressed alarm in December that proposed European legislation risked the “criminalisation of life-saving action and assistance to victims of human trafficking, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and other persons in need of international protection, including children”.