Greece adjourns trial of aid workers involved in refugee rescues

Sean Binder holds a placard during a demonstration by Amnesty International activists in solidarity with Sean Binder and Sarah Mardini, aid workers on trial over refugee rescues, outside the parliament building, in Athens, Greece, November 15, 2021. REUTERS/Louiza Vradi

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.