Athens, Greece – It was April 2022 when Homayoun Sabetara lastly advised her daughters that she was in a Greek jail cell.
Sabetara, an Iranian nationwide, had been arrested in August 2021 in Thessaloniki after crossing the Turkish-Greek border with a automobile.
Sabetara says he was compelled to drive it to Greece and transport the opposite seven individuals discovered inside. In September 2022, he was sentenced to 18 years in jail for smuggling in a trial that activists say was unfair and Sabetara didn’t totally perceive.
His daughter Mahtab Sabetara is now centered on elevating consciousness about an enchantment trial that begins Monday in Thessaloniki and drawing consideration to the plight of different asylum seekers who apparently discover themselves in the identical scenario.
“It was fairly surprising for me to undergo this and notice that that is the destiny of many people who find themselves now in jail as a result of similar accusations,” Mahtab Sabetara advised Al Jazeera by cellphone from Germany, the place he lives.
“I believed, after all, it will be factor for my father, in order that we are able to increase consciousness about his trial, however on the similar time make clear different circumstances that aren’t well-known.”
Mahtab Sabetara mentioned he hopes to push for broader political change.
“It’s not simply an remoted occasion. “It’s a systematic downside that impacts many individuals and is straight associated to Europe’s migration insurance policies,” she said.
“I at all times give this instance: when the struggle began in Ukraine and other people in Germany, for instance, went to the Polish borders and took some individuals of their vehicles, these individuals had been by no means referred to as smugglers. The purpose was that these individuals had been doing one thing ethical.”
He added that, in his opinion, “nearly all of people who find themselves referred to as smugglers are literally individuals on the transfer and, in lots of circumstances, the actual fact is that they’d no different alternative.”
Mahtab Sabetara mentioned that since his father’s arrest, he has struggled to totally perceive what is occurring to him and why he’s in jail.
“He fled Iran at a time when he had no different alternate options. He by no means thought this could be the end result.”
The European Fee has made combating smuggling one among its high priorities and in 2023 proposed laws that it mentioned would go after individuals smugglers.
“We’re stepping up the struggle towards migrant smuggling and defending individuals from falling into the fingers of criminals,” EU Residence Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson mentioned in November. “We’re going after the smugglers, not the smugglers.”
Nevertheless, human rights advocates have lengthy argued that harmless persons are at all times caught up on this repression, pointing to circumstances throughout Europe by which refugees and migrants have confronted important jail sentences for being discovered on the helm of a ship or a automobile after being compelled inside. the place.
Dimitris Choulis of the Human Rights Authorized Venture, a authorized help group, can be one of many attorneys representing Homayoun Sabetara in courtroom.
“The primary hope is to have a good trial, a trial by which all procedural legal guidelines are revered, and the second is for Homayoun to be launched from jail and reunited together with his household,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Choulis, who resides on the Greek island of Samos, one of many details of arrival by sea for refugees and migrants to Greece, mentioned he has seen a number of circumstances of asylum seekers wrongly accused of smuggling.
“What is phenomenal on this case is that each members of Homayoun’s household have discovered the instruments and power to struggle towards injustice,” he mentioned.
“It is crucial to grasp that each one these individuals have names and households, to grasp that they aren’t simply statistics.”
A 2023 report by Borderline Europe, an NGO, famous that folks convicted of smuggling type the second largest group in Greek prisons, of which round 90 % are international nationals.
He mentioned being the one individual in a bunch who spoke English is usually the rationale persons are charged.
Erik Marquardt, the Greens/European Free Alliance member of the European Parliament who commissioned the report, alleged in a press release to Al Jazeera that the Greek authorities is “knowingly misusing legal guidelines” designed to fight trafficking to “ “persecute and punish those that flee to its shores searching for safety.”
“This harmful deterrence technique just isn’t about punishing criminals, however about criminalizing migration. “The Greek authorities imprisons individuals whose solely crime is to hunt asylum in Europe and, in doing so, is attacking its personal rule of legislation and endangering its democracy,” he said.
Greek ministers have persistently advocated a “strict however honest” migration coverage and have spoken of the significance of tackling human trafficking and smuggling networks to guard Greece’s borders.
On the time of publication, Greek authorities had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for remark.
Mahtab Sabetara, in the meantime, continues to marketing campaign for his father to be acquitted, remembering a humorous man he used to play chess with.
“He is a really constructive individual,” he mentioned. “Or she was a really constructive individual.”
