Today On the Move, Begüm Başdaş talked with Sean Binder and Athanasios Karakitsos who are criminalized together with 22 humanitarians for being in solidarity with refugees in Greece. The humanitarians are accused with multiple trumped-up charges and face up to 25 years of imprisonment. Binder and Karakitsos talked about their solidarity work and the charges that are targeted against them before the trial that will start on January 10 on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Karakitsos defined humanitarian work as “helping people in need.” He said, “In Lesvos, we were there with people all over the world for one common purpose, to help people in need.” While Binder, who spent nights just standing on the shoreline waiting to help people in distress for months, said that this trial is actually criminalization of all people in solidarity.
Binder and Karakitsos explained in detail the events that led to their pre-trial imprisonment in Greece for more than 100 days and the procedural errors that severely violates their right to fair trial, including the restriction on Sara Mardini that ban her entry to Greece to attend her own trial.
Binder and Karakitsos invite everyone to follow the case and support the campaign #FreeHumanitarians to drop the charges against them.
