The ruling brings to a close a seven-year legal ordeal that began in 2018, when volunteers with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) were arrested and accused of crimes that human rights groups have long described as unfounded.
The case drew international attention as an example of how humanitarian action in Europe’s border regions has increasingly been treated as a criminal offense. The defendants, a mix of Greek and foreign nationals, had been charged with offenses including people smuggling, espionage, and money laundering for activities that involved locating boats in distress, assisting people after they reached shore, and raising funds for rescue work. If convicted, some of them faced potential prison sentences of up to 25 years.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the acquittals but emphasized the heavy toll of the prolonged prosecutions. Eva Cossé, a senior researcher with the organization, said the verdict offered vindication but came at a high cost. She noted that two dozen people had spent seven years under the threat of severe criminal penalties simply for saving lives, and that the prosecutions had effectively shut down lifesaving operations on Lesbos at a time when deaths at sea continued. She urged Greek authorities to stop criminalizing solidarity, end the practice of pushbacks at sea, and refocus on protecting human life.
Among the most prominent defendants were Sarah Mardini, a Syrian refugee, and Sean Binder, a German national, who were arrested in August 2018. Two Greek citizens, including ERCI staff member Nassos Karakitsos, were also held in pretrial detention. Prosecutors alleged that the volunteers’ rescue work amounted to participation in an organized criminal network facilitating irregular migration. Human rights organizations countered that these claims distorted the reality of humanitarian search and rescue, which was often carried out in coordination with the Greek Coast Guard and is explicitly exempt from prosecution under Greek law when it involves assisting asylum seekers.
The accusations extended to routine practices used by rescue groups worldwide, such as monitoring open maritime radio channels and publicly available ship-tracking websites to identify boats in danger. Prosecutors portrayed these activities as espionage, despite the fact that the information was not classified and was accessible to anyone with standard equipment or an internet connection. Fundraising efforts were similarly framed as money laundering, a characterization that defense lawyers and rights groups said lacked any factual basis.
The impact of the case went beyond the individuals charged. ERCI, a registered nonprofit organization in Greece that also provided medical care and educational support to refugee and migrant children, eventually ceased operations. Human Rights Watch and other observers warned that the prosecutions sent a chilling message to humanitarian actors across the region, discouraging rescue efforts as crossings in the eastern Mediterranean remained perilous.
