Author: Cain Burdeau | courthousenews.com | 18 April 2019
A group of lawyers accused Greek authorities on Thursday of violating human-rights laws when they arrested a man in 2016 for trying to help asylum-seekers at sea reach Europe’s shores.
The Global Legal Action Network, or GLAN, said it filed a petition at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, this morning, challenging the arrest of Salam Kamal-Aldeen.
Aldeen became a high-profile case after he and other volunteers were arrested in January 2016. Aldeen, an Iraqi-Danish citizen, was charged with attempted human smuggling for his rescue work in the Aegean Sea.
The petition before the Strasbourg court opens up a new legal front in a multifaceted fight between human rights advocates and European authorities over how to handle asylum-seekers fleeing war, persecution, hardship and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.