A packed Greek court erupted in cheers as Seán Binder from Co Kerry was found not guilty of people smuggling, belonging to a criminal organisation and money laundering, almost eight years after the charges were first brought.
The trial of Mr Binder and 23 other humanitarians who had been volunteering to save refugees from drowning in the sea off Lesvos in Greece concluded this evening. All defendants were found not guilty of all three charges.
Had they been found guilty, they would have faced up to 20 years in prison.
Outside the court in Mytilene, the capital of Lesvos, confetti and champagne corks exploded as all 24 defendants and their supporters celebrated their acquittal.
But Seán Binder said that his emotions were mixed after the verdict.
"I feel so delighted that I don't spend the next 20 years in a Greek prison, but I also feel angry that we've had to wait for this long to have that confirmed," he said.
"There is just no need to prosecute people for doing exactly what the European Union laws say we should be doing. It isn't controversial that search and rescue happens. It is a legal requirement that the European Union has imposed.
"So why prosecute European Union citizens when they do just that?
"Obviously it's great that we've been acquitted but it should never have gotten this far. People drown all the time on these islands and there are fewer and fewer people doing search and rescue.
"The damage has been done and it'll take a long time, if ever, we're able to re-affirm the rule of law here at Europe's shoreline."
Mr Binder said that the charges had been spurious from the beginning, designed to deter humanitarians from operating on the island.
"And by stopping those search and rescue efforts, we have a deterrent at our shoreline, and that causes people to drown," he said.
Watch: Séan Binder, delighted and angry after acquittal
The case took some seven years to get to trial but the prosecutor told the court that there were in fact no grounds for the charges.
One woman, whose husband had been charged with the three felony offences, sobbed as the prosecutor read out his account.
It was not proven that the defendants had been in contact with any specific people smugglers, the court heard.
Seán Binder's lawyer Zac Kesses said that it had been 2,077 days since Mr Binder and his former colleagues were charged, hugely impacting their lives.
But those charges could easily have been dropped much sooner, he said.
One defendant spoke of lifting children’s cold, limp bodies from beaches on Lesvos as a volunteer, not knowing if they were dead or alive.
She also saw people crushed to death on crowded boats, unable to help at the time or to subsequently erase those harrowing images.
There was chaos on beaches on Lesvos where 3,000 people per day, including children, many injured or hypothermic after near-lethal journeys at sea, could wash in needing aid, she said.
What was unfolding on Greek beaches in 2018 was the biggest refugee crisis since World War II and humanitarians, including those on trial, were trying to respond and save lives, witness Iasonas Apostolopoulos said at the trial.
Some witnesses became tearful as they recounted their experiences trying to help before they were arrested in 2018.
Humanitarians told the Court of Appeal that they felt obliged to volunteer and try to save lives as the authorities often failed to respond.
One of the 24 defendants, Ihab Abassi was working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders, at that time.
The charges, and the almost eight years it took to get to trial, has had a major impact on the defendants, he said.
"It has been almost eight years of too much pressure," Mr Abassi said.
"It’s been a drain psychologically, it’s been a drain financially, it’s been a very, very difficult eight years."
