Finally, after 8 years the case is over! On 15 January 2026, the Court of Mytilene on Lesvos island unanimously declared all the defendants innocent of all charges, with judges and prosecutors in full agreement.
The trial was referred to as the largest case of criminalisation of solidarity in Europe, involving 37 initial defendants, 24 of whom were identified. Five of them were held in pre-trial detention for over 100 days, including Sarah Mardini, Sean Binder, and Nassos Karakitsos. The defendants were 24 members of international humanitarian organizations (rescuers, volunteers, and activists) who were helping refugees on Lesvos between 2016 and 2018.
All of them faced sentences of up to 25 years in prison on felony charges, including migrant smuggling, membership in a criminal organisation, money laundering, and fraud. Last year, they were acquitted of the misdemeanour charge of espionage.
The truth is that their only “mistake” was that they saved the “wrong” lives — the lives of those whom Europe labels as “illegals,” and “invaders,” effectively calling for their erasure. Inside the court, the judges felt awkward. Within the first 5 minutes, they realised there was no case. The file was empty. There was not a single piece of evidence linking the defendants to the alleged crimes.
Is it possible that eight (!) years were wasted on something the judges understood in the first five minutes? Is it possible that an indictment file that was empty was sent to court? How did this pass the investigative stage? Why was it not dismissed earlier?
Those who constructed this case must be held accountable. Twenty-four rescuers had to wait eight years to prove that WhatsApp is not an “encrypted illegal application used for smuggling people,” but rather a necessary tool for organising frontline emergency responses on Lesvos and coordinating the thousands of volunteers active on the ground. Twenty-four rescuers had to wait eight years to prove that using binoculars to scan the sea for boats in distress is not “spying” or “intercepting state secrets” (the number and type of the Greek CG vessels and Frontex).
As Sean Binder said: “It took eight years to prove that when Sara Mardini fundraised for a washing machine, she didn’t mean money laundering (!), but was making a legal call for donations to support refugee aid groups. It took eight years to clarify that conducting search and rescue (SAR) operations is not smuggling. We shouldn’t have had to wait 8 years for that. It should have taken 30 minutes for a police commander to speak to the coastguard officer and verify the facts. During those eight years, people drowned in the Greek islands, thousands of euros were wasted, the solidarity movement was defamed, and rescue NGOs left Greece.
Now that all the defendants have been acquitted, will the mainstream media outlets that ran headlines like “NGO-smuggler ring busted on Lesvos” apologize? Probably not. Had there been convictions, it would have been a huge story.
That is why this victory has enormous political significance. It is a victory against the deep state and against the mechanism that legitimises violence at the borders and criminalises not only the people on the move, but also anyone who helps the people on the move. The truth is relentless. Despite their efforts, no rescuer has so far been convicted—neither in Greece nor in Italy. The only people who have been convicted for migrant smuggling in Greece are border police officers.
Once again it has been proven that the fairy tales they spin about NGOs as spies, anti-Greek agents, or Turks are meant only for domestic consumption and media noise. Apart from rallying a conservative audience, these prosecutions have another fundamental goal. The purpose of these prosecutions is not to convict. The purpose of these prosecutions is to terrorise, discredit, and erase solidarity from European borders.
The purpose of these prosecutions is to intimidate and kick volunteers and aid workers off the shores of Lesvos, to get rid of witnesses, so the Greek government can seamlessly keep on doing barbaric pushbacks and actions of border brutality against the people on the move.
According to data from the organisation “Aegean Boat Report”, from 2020 to 2025 the Greek authorities carried out 3,559 pushbacks in the Aegean, forcibly returning 97,240 people. None of the perpetrators has been arrested to date. Unfortunately, they have succeeded. There is currently no rescue boat on the island.
However, this victory is not the end, but a first step towards justice. We are happy about the acquittal, but we must continue the struggle so that the real criminals of the European borders are punished. We must continue the fight for the thousands of people who face the same charges and are inside European prisons “as smugglers,” while in reality they are random refugees. Solidarity will prevail!
If helping people is a crime, then we’re all guilty.
Iasonas Apostolopoulos, Witness of Defense, SAR activist
