LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) -The trial of 24 aid workers involved in refugee rescues began on the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday and was immediately adjourned amid calls from rights groups that authorities drop the "absurd" charges of spying and disclosing state secrets.
The aid workers, some of them foreigners and including a Syrian refugee, were affiliated with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), a nonprofit search-and-rescue group operating on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018. The island was then on the frontline of Europe's refugee crisis, with scores of asylum-seekers arriving daily on its shores.