The true story of the film “The swimmers”: today is the trial of Sarah Mardini

If you have seen The swimmers by Sally El Hosaini on Netflix you know the story is true: tells the incredible adventure of Yusra And Sarah Mardinitwo Syrian teenage sisters who fled Damascus in 2015, as the civil war was tragically approaching their home.

After reaching Turkey, to cross the Aegean Sea and reach the Greek island of Lesbos, paid smugglers to board a poorly maintained and overcrowded dinghy with 18 people on board. Too bad that halfway through the journey the engine stopped and the dinghy, already half deflated, slowly began to take on water. The situation was desperate. At that point Sarah, a young passionate girl, threw herself into the sea to lighten the boat, trying to swim and tow the boat as much as possible. Her sister Yusra, a swimming champion in her country, also dived, and with her two other boys, crucial to get to the other side. They all survived. After other ups and downs to cross borders, Yusra and Sarah manage to arrive in a reception center in Germany and Yusra, taking up swimming again, arrives to participate in Olympic Games of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

And here the film ends.

So everything seemed to have gone well, except that Sarah, who is now 28 years old, is in the midst of an investigation for which she could risk quite a few years in prison.

After her personal experience, Sarah collaborated with the NGO Emergency Response International Center (ERCI) in Lesvos, engaged in search and rescue operations for migrants in the Aegean. It is a pity that, on 21 August 2018, you were arrested at the airport of Lesvos by the Greek police, with the accusation of espionage and human trafficking. They accused her of being part of a criminal organization. And so she spent 106 days in jail before being released on bail in December 2018.

Since then the trial has been postponed several times: the prosecution has postponed the first hearing from year to year, until today, January 10, when the first hearing finally took place: «Today the defense spoke, but still not you can understand how the sentence will go», he explains Richard Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy, which has been following the story for years, «Sarah did not appear in court, she remained in Berlin, where she lives today. There was instead Sean Binder, the other activist, a trained diver, who worked with her and who is accused of the same thing. For this charge, of counterfeiting, they risk 8 years in prison, but there is another weighing heavily on them, for which they could risk up to 20 years instead: they say they are involved in trafficking in human beings and stories of recycling. Our commitment is that those accusations are withdrawn: the next appointment is Friday 13 January, when the public prosecution will speak and it will be possible to really understand how it will go. It’s absurd that people like Sarah and Seán are charged with crimes just for helping people in need.”