London: Yusra Mardini's sister Sara is one of twenty aid workers being prosecuted in Greece for their aid work on the island of Lesbos, Human Rights Watch reports. According to a report by the European Parliament, "the biggest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe".

24 defendants from the Emergency Response Center International will go on trial for misdemeanor charges on January 10 in Mytilene, Lesbos, for their search-and-rescue operations at sea in support of asylum seekers.

Human Rights Watch reports that Yusra Mardini's sister Sarah is one of twenty aid workers being prosecuted in Greece for their aid work on the island of Lesbos. According to a report by the European Parliament, "the biggest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe".

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24 defendants from the Emergency Response Center International will go on trial for misdemeanor charges on January 10 in Mytilene, Lesbos, for their search-and-rescue operations at sea in support of asylum seekers.

According to Bill van Asveld, associate director of HRW Children's Rights, "This case is really an indictment of the Greek authorities prosecuting them for saving lives they didn't want them to save.

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Meanwhile, Esveld continued, "The Greek government restricts humanitarian rescue while illegally turning back refugees and migrants, forcing them into the dire conditions that humanitarians sought to alleviate.

In the rights organization's opinion, the charges are founded on a Greek police report, which contains factual errors, such as claiming that some of the accused participated in rescue operations on several occasions when they were not in Greece.

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The right to be present at one's own trial is protected by international, European and Greek law. Mardini, who lives in Germany, was previously denied entry to Greece to attend his own trial. It is unknown, according to his lawyers, if he will be allowed to enter the country for his January trial.

Recently, the Netflix film "The Swimmers" based on the life of Mardini and her sister came out. Two Syrian asylum seekers crossed the Mediterranean by boat from Turkey to Greece in 2015. When the engine failed, he helped other passengers by swimming and saving the boat. Later, Mardini visited Lesbos again as a volunteer search and rescuer. He was kept in custody for 106 days after his arrest on August 21, 2018.