A group of 24 aid workers who had been put on trial in Greece after rescuing migrants at sea was acquitted of all charges on Thursday, according to lawyers who attended the hearing, in a case that had been widely condemned by rights groups as an attempt to criminalize rescue work.
The former volunteers, who included the Syrian refugee turned campaigner Sara Mardini, had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges including facilitating illegal entry, money-laundering and membership of a criminal organization.
Their prosecution was the latest salvo against both aid workers and migrants across Europe as leaders in Greece and beyond aimed to prevent a repeat of the 2015-2016 crisis that saw hundreds of thousands of people flee war and poverty.
The island of Lesbos, where the trial took place, was the front line of that crisis — and a focal point for volunteers who scrambled from across the world to rescue migrants at sea and help them after they landed. The volunteers included Ms. Mardini and her 23 co-defendants, who worked with the now-defunct Greek nonprofit Emergency Response Center International.
A criminal court in Lesbos cleared the defendants at a hearing on Thursday, saying their aim was not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid, according to defense lawyers present in court, Zacharias Kesses and Evita Papakiriakidou. Court officials declined to comment by phone on the verdict because the judges have yet to formally issue it in writing.
Mr. Kesses, who represented several defendants including Ms. Mardini, said the decision was a “courageous ruling.”
“The decision is of particular importance because it prevented the creation of a dangerous precedent that would have threatened the humanitarian and solidarity movement,” he added.
The verdict came amid growing restrictions placed on migrants and their advocates by Greece’s conservative government. Recent legislation means that asylum seekers now face up to five years in prison if they remain in the country after their applications are rejected, and civil society groups face greater limits on their work with refugees. Those moves followed a broader crackdown on migrants trying to reach Greece, with a New York Times investigation in 2023 finding that Greek Coast Guard officers had rounded up asylum seekers and abandoned them at sea.
The aid workers’ exoneration was the culmination of a judicial process that began in 2018 with the arrest and detention of several volunteers, including Ms. Mardini, who is the sister of the Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini. The sisters drew global attention in 2015 after they escaped the war in Syria and helped to pull their sinking boat — and another 18 refugees — to safety on the shores of Lesbos.
A Greek court threw out previous misdemeanor charges against the activists, including espionage, in early 2023. Their subsequent trial on more serious criminal charges, which began in December, took nearly three more years to get to court, keeping the defendants in legal limbo.
Rights groups welcomed the decision to dismiss those charges but also said it was a reminder that tougher migration policies have virtually stamped out humanitarian work.
“Justice for these 24 individuals is a relief, but the environment for solidarity in Greece remains under siege,” said Eva Cossé, a senior researcher stationed in Athens for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group. “The Greek government’s campaign of criminalization has already achieved its chilling effect, shutting down independent rescue work in the Aegean.”
The verdict, which the lawyers said was final and could not be appealed, appeared to draw little reaction from right-wing groups that had previously been vocal critics of rescue workers. Public interest in the case has diminished, partly because migrations levels have dropped significantly since their 2015 peak. In general, Greek court verdicts rarely provoke significant public pushback.
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