“Saving lives is not a crime”: Sara Mardini, former Bard College Berlin student and humanitarian, acquitted on all charges

On January 15, 2026, after a seven-year legal battle, Sara Mardini and 23 fellow activists were acquitted of all charges in a Greek court. Mardini was arrested in September 2018 on the island of Lesbos for her involvement with the aid group ERCI (Emergency Response Center International), which was rescuing refugees from the Aegean Sea and helping them reach land safely.

For her humanitarian efforts, Mardini was held in prison for over 100 days, accused of human trafficking, membership in a criminal organization, spying, and money laundering—charges which Human Rights Watch HRW called “bogus” and “baseless.” As the verdict clearing her name was read in court last week, Mardini exclaimed, “Saving lives is not a crime,” reports HRW.

Sara Mardini became a student at Bard College Berlin in August 2017 when she was awarded a full scholarship under the Program for International Education and Social Change (PIESC), now in its tenth year of supporting students from areas of crisis and conflict. Upon her arrest, Bard College Berlin spearheaded the defense team and press campaign to bring awareness to her unjust imprisonment, organizing a press conference and a demonstration in Berlin on her behalf. 

Sara and her sister Yusra Mardini, who participated as one of 10 athletes on the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio in 2016, became internationally known for saving the lives of the other 18 forced migrants in their life raft by swimming their water-logged boat to the Greek coast during their own flight across the Mediterranean in 2015. The sisters’ story of survival was the subject of the critically-acclaimed 2022 Netflix film, The Swimmers.

Read more about the legal decision that has freed Sara Mardini in Human Rights Watch.

Post Date: 02-02-2026