Greek court acquits aid workers of spying charges

ATHENS (Reuters) - Sixteen aid workers who were involved in refugee rescues on the Greek island of Lesbos at the peak of a refugee crisis have been acquitted of espionage charges by a court, a defence lawyer said on Wednesday.

In total 24 aid workers, including Greeks and foreigners, affiliated with the Emergency Response Center International, a nonprofit search-and-rescue group operating on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018, were charged. The island was then on the frontline of Europe's refugee crisis, with scores of asylum-seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia arriving daily.

The aid workers, who faced charges of espionage, belonging to a criminal group, people-smuggling and money-laundering, denied any wrongdoing.

Eight foreign humanitarian aid workers were acquitted of espionage charges last year. The trial for the rest began on Jan. 9 and concluded late on Tuesday after several sessions.

"The court in Lesbos ruled yesterday that the 16 aid workers are innocent," Zacharias Kesses, defence lawyer for some of those acquitted, told Reuters.

The court ruled that no evidence was presented to substantiate the espionage charges, Kesses said, adding that the trial for the other charges was pending for all the defendants.

The United Nations human rights office has said the case has had a chilling effect on humanitarian organizations in the region and called for the charges to be dropped.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Editing by Kylie Maclellan)