{"id":1039887,"date":"2021-11-21T10:43:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T15:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1039887"},"modified":"2021-11-21T10:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T15:43:54","slug":"greece-ngo-workers-face-25-years-in-prison-for-aiding-illegals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/greece-ngo-workers-face-25-years-in-prison-for-aiding-illegals\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece: NGO Workers Face 25 Years in Prison for Aiding Illegals"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgreece-ngo-workers-face-25-years-in-prison-for-aiding-illegals%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1039887&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1236640393-e1637357966548-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The trial of 24 NGO workers accused of aiding illegal migration, espionage, and people trafficking opened in Lesbos, Greece, on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The 24 NGO workers from the group&nbsp;Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) could face up to 25 years in prison for their alleged activities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The suspects were involved in transporting migrants attempting to cross illegally by boat to the island between 2016 and 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Greek prosecutors, however, alleged that the group is a criminal organisation and claim that they have been involved in money laundering, espionage, disclosing state secrets, and human trafficking, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/news\/1172068\/aid-workers-accused-of-spying-go-on-trial-in-greece-over-refugee-rescues\/\">according to<\/a>&nbsp;<em>I Kathimerini<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Rights groups have criticised the legal proceedings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/fr\/europe\/20211118-gr%C3%A8ce-24-humanitaires-jug%C3%A9s-pour-des-op%C3%A9rations-de-sauvetage-de-migrants\">including<\/a> Amnesty International which called the charges \u201cgrotesque\u201d and claimed that the case \u201cshows how far the Greek authorities are willing to go to discourage people from helping refugees and migrants\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The group Human Rights Watch (HRW) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infomigrants.net\/fr\/post\/36554\/grece--24-humanitaires-juges-pour-des-operations-de-sauvetage-de-migrants\">claimed<\/a> the trial was \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"6.8888888888889\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">German NGOs Accused of Spying on Greek Border Authorities to Help Smuggle Migrants <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6rY0RkaJzG\">https:\/\/t.co\/6rY0RkaJzG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1313511584388378624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Syrian migrant Sarah Mardini is one of the defendants in the case and had been placed in pre-trial detention for three months in 2018. She became known in 2015 after helping to rescue 20 passengers of an adrift boat along with her sister.&nbsp;Mardini lives in Germany and has been banned from entering Greece and will be represented in court by a lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>German national&nbsp;Sean Binder, a trained rescue diver, was also arrested in 2018 and spent 107 days in a maximum security facility in pre-trial detention. Binder later left Greece but has since returned to stand trial.<\/p>\n<p>The ECRI is not the only NGO to face accusations of aiding illegal immigration to Greece in recent years. A police investigation last year named several NGOs as having members who have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2020\/10\/06\/german-ngos-accused-spying-greek-border-authorities-help-smuggle-migrants\/\">aided people smugglers<\/a> in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-migrant activists were said to have recorded communications between Greek officials and used the NGO Alarmphone to coordinate the positions of migrant boats to avoid Greek authorities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"12.055555555556\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Greek newspaper has blamed NGOs for a surge of arrivals of African migrants, mainly from Somalia, claiming that between 2,000 and 2,500 migrants are currently in Turkey being helped to enter Greece illegally. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i7L6RRRu9Q\">https:\/\/t.co\/i7L6RRRu9Q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartNews\/status\/1340692413992603649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 20, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h5><span data-darkreader-inline-color><em><strong><span class=\"a-size-large\">Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at&nbsp;<span data-darkreader-inline-color><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomlinsonCJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@TomlinsonCJ<\/a>&nbsp;<\/span>or email at&nbsp;ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The trial of 24 NGO workers accused of aiding illegal migration, espionage, and people trafficking opened in Lesbos, Greece, on Thursday. The 24 NGO workers from the group\u00a0Emergency Response Center &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1039887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}