On 6 October, the Three-Member Court of Appeal of Rhodes (Dodecanese) will hear another case in the long-running series of prosecutions criminalising migration and solidarity. Two migrants seeking asylum are being tried alongside two European human rights defenders, whose alleged offence was to report the migrants’ arrival to the authorities.
The incident dates back to 13 July 2021 and concerns the arrival of people on the Greek islands of Kos and Farmakonisi. As documented in our Trial Monitoring Report 2025, Greek authorities systematically fail to distinguish between the passengers and drivers of boats used by People on the Move to reach the Greek islands, and those connected to the smuggling networks that organise and profit from these crossings. In this case, a Cameroonian passenger was accused of facilitating unauthorized entry only for steering the boat, while a fellow national, already going through the asylum procedure in the Closed Controlled Access Centre of Kos, was accused of organising the transportation.
Alongside them stand Tommy Olsen, founder of the Aegean Boat Report (ABR), and Panayiotis Dimitras, spokesperson for the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM). After receiving information about the arrival and location of the migrants, they formally notified the Hellenic Police, the Coast Guard, the Greek migration authorities, the UN Refugee Agency in Greece and the Greek Ombudsman. They also raised the alarm through their social media accounts, stressing the migrants’ presence and their intention to seek international protection.
The Greek authorities have engaged in a systematic pattern of harassment against human rights defenders, portraying them as members of criminal organisations that take part in smuggling networks. This rhetoric is reinforced by public statements from government officials, leaks to the press, and criminal charges that keep defenders trapped for years in the pathologies of the Greek judicial system. 1 Less than a year ago, the court of Mytilene dismissed all charges against 24 human rights defenders and volunteers facing similar charges. Three of them had spent more than three months in pre-trial detention, and the rest had endured serious restrictions and stigmatisation before being exonerated eight years after the charges were first filed.
In this latest episode, Tommy Olsen and Panayiotis Dimitras are being forced to defend themselves in court and to state the obvious: helping to save lives is not a crime. Their long-standing commitment to supporting People on the Move, and to reporting the systemic abuses committed by various state and international authorities and organisations, is exactly what has made them targets.
The pursuit has gone even further. In December 2025, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for Tommy Olsen, leading to his arrest in Norway and a request for his extradition to Greece. The Norwegian court of appeal unanimously recognised that the acts described by the Greek authorities did not constitute criminal offences under Norwegian law, and that surrender would risk violating Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Panayiotis Dimitras has also faced severe restrictions. After a warrant was issued and he appeared before the investigating judge in Kos, he was subjected to a travel ban, a police reporting requirement and €10,000 bail, as well as a restriction on his GHM activities. In a separate investigation into alleged misuse of funds, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority froze assets and accounts connected to Dimitras and his organisation for 18 months. The restriction on his GHM activities was later lifted, but the travel ban, bail and reporting requirement remained in place for years.
The case against Tommy Olsen and Panayiotis Dimitras cannot be seen in isolation from the other cases against human rights defenders, nor from the wider accusations levelled at lawyers, NGOs and journalists who report on the systematic violations of the fundamental rights of People on the Move.2
Together with thousands of others around the world, we express our solidarity with Tommy Olsen and Panayiotis Dimitras. We urge the Greek authorities to drop all charges against them and to develop a framework that protects human rights defenders.
We insist: solidarity is not a crime. We demand accountability for pushbacks, not the prosecution of witnesses.
Footnotes
1 UN Special Procedures, Allegation Letter to the Government of Greece from the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders et al., Ref. AL GRC 2/2026, March 25, 2026.
2 UN Special Procedures, AL GRC 2/2026.
