LAST UPDATE | 16 Jan

IRISH MAN SEAN Binder has said he feels “enormous relief” after being acquitted of all charges, including membership of a criminal organisation, fraud, money laundering, and smuggling, at a court in Greece.

Binder, who was born in Germany and raised in Castlegregory, Co Kerry, travelled to the Greek island of Lesbos in late 2017 to volunteer with the Emergency Response Centre, a search-and-rescue NGO.

His work involved patrolling the coastline to spot rubber boats in distress and assisting migrants once they reached shore.

The following year, he and 23 other volunteers were charged with a series of offences, including misdemeanour counts related to espionage, illegal access to state communications and facilitating criminal activity.

Binder spent more than 100 days in pretrial detention, and in 2023 the lesser charges linked to migrant smuggling were dropped.

More serious charges remained, however, and Binder and 23 other defendants stood trial later at the Court of Appeal in Mytilene, the capital of Lesbos, this afternoon.

Yesterday, the court acquitted Binder of all charges.

“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.

Prosecutor Dimitris Smyrnis had earlier recommended their acquittal, emphasising that “no independent basis establishing the criminal liability of the defendants has been demonstrated”.

‘It was farcical’

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning, Binder said he felt “enormous relief” following the verdict. 

“For seven years, we have had this threat of 20 years imprisonment hang over our heads.”

Binder said he and the other volunteers had worked with the Greek coast guard and the police “almost on a nightly basis” before they arrived to arrest him one night in February 2018.

He said he was not allowed to work and couldn’t save to start a family for the duration of the case, though he was inspired to retrain as a barrister after meeting other people “adversely affected by the criminal justice system” and now works as a criminal lawyer. 

After almost eight years, Binder believes the case lasted as long as it did to deter other people from joining search-and-rescue operations. 

“The prosecutor himself yesterday advised the court to acquit us. The judges unanimously agreed with that recommendation, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence,” he said.

“The foundation of the smuggling charge was that we did search-and-rescue. The accusation of spying was that we used WhatsApp. The fact that we were charged with money laundering stems from the fact that we raised money to buy laundry machines. It was farcical. 

He continued: “So the only real outcome of all of this is that it has stopped people from engaging in search and rescue. It has been enough to scare them away from the shoreline, and that’s the point.

“One would think that if the prosecution really thought we were these heinous criminals, they’d want us convicted as quickly as possible.

If they had any evidence, we would have probably been convicted years ago. But it was we who pushed for trial, and it was the prosecutor who set delay after delay.

Binder added he hopes his story is not seen as a “cautionary tale” but rather reminds people “that if we don’t insist on the bare minimum, for example, that we shouldn’t let people drown in our oceans, then they will”. 

‘A welcome relief’

In a statement yesterday following his acquittal, Binder said that the court “reached the only decision it could”, which he said was due to “the limited legal basis of the charges and the flimsy evidence the prosecutor presented”.

“Today, it was made clear, as it should always have been, that providing life-saving humanitarian assistance is an obligation, not a crime,” Binder said.

“This acquittal must set a precedent.”

Speaking to The Journal in 2023, Binder remarked: “In an ideal world there would be no need for search-and-rescue because people would not be drowning.

“And twenty-something-year-old volunteers shouldn’t be the way that we respond to people in distress; but that is the reality we live in.”

Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, described the verdict as “a welcome relief for Seán and his friends, family and supporters, but also for civil society in Greece and beyond.”

“While welcoming this reprieve, Amnesty International underlines once again that these charges should never have been brought to trial in the first place,” Geddie said.

Sean’s human rights have been violated, and his life has remained on hold for many years.

Geddie added that the Amnesty organisation hopes that the verdict “sends a strong signal” to Greece and other European countries on human rights.

“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,” Geddie added.

Human Rights Watch and the United Nations were among the other organisations to express concern about the case.

Additional reporting from Jane Moore and AFP