Life Interrupted
SeΓ΅n Binder's life is totally normal except for the Damoclean threat of a possible 20-year sentence in a Greek jail for his humanitarian work on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2018.
You could say SeΓ΅n Binder was doing the right thing in the right place at the wrong time. In 2018, he was part of the volunteer humanitarian effort on the island of Lesbos. Still a point of arrival for the inflatable dinghies & ramshackle craft packed with refugees & migrants & usually sent by smugglers. These overfilled craft would arrive on Lesbos & other Greek islands with people in various states of distress & need.
A trained rescue diver, Sean was part of Emergency Response Centre International, a small humanitarian aid group that co-ordinated efforts with the Greek Coast Guard to prevent loss of life. Frequently for SeΓ΅n, that would mean waiting on a dark beach to hand a blanket to an utter stranger but in February 2018 the local island police arrested Binder & a colleague & began an investigation that led first to 106 days in pre-trial detention & then a raft of unproven charges that include money laundering, espionage and assisting illegal smuggling networks. The case remains ongoing with the threat of up to 20 years imprisonment for Binder & his fellow accused. Meanwhile SeΓ΅n has simply had get on with his life. The nightmare experience has been both transformative & chilling-it hangs over everything. Never quite happening, sometimes farcical yet always threatening to tug away at the normality of Sean's day to day existence.
Producer Mark Burman
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- Mon 23 May 2022 11:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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