A normal life? Impossible in the case of the Mardini. The story that was the symbol of the Rio Games, with Yusra parading with the refugee team, is now tainted by the story of her sister Sara, who swam like a dolphin. In the Ansa story, another sad part of the story.
Yusra and Sara Mardini
Jail for twenty-five years, just like her age: it is the punishment that Sara Mardini risks to suffer, the young Syrian swimmer who became famous years ago for risking her life, together with her sister Yusra, to save about twenty other migrants who, like her, they fled Syria in war. The trial against Sara Mardini and other humanitarian workers, members of a Greek non-governmental organization, opens in Athens after several months of postponements. And it is defined by many as a process to criminalize humanitarian work. Sara Mardini is not only the older sister of Yusra, the most famous Syrian swimmer who, after the very risky crossing of the Aegean, took refuge in Germany, participated in the 2016 Olympics and wrote the bestseller “Butterfly”, from which the film “The Swimmers” was made, coming soon to Netflix. Sara is any Syrian girl from Damascus who, after the adventurous story of rescuing migrants at sea, first settled in Berlin where she continued her studies and then decided to return to the Greek island of Lesbos to find “the beach where I had landed. I was supposed to stay only two weeks and instead I stayed ”.
Yusra Mardini
It was 2017. And from Lesbos Sara began working as a humanitarian worker, at sea and on land, for the Greek organization Emergency Response Center International, which included many numerous European citizens, engaged in one of the hottest nodes of the road. maritime and land migration. In 2018, however, the Greek police arrested Sara and other colleagues of her twice. The young woman ended up in prison first in Lesbos and then in Athens. She spent more than 100 days behind bars, “in very difficult conditions”, as she tells the newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour in Beirut. She was released from prison only after three months, behind a bail of 5,000 euros, and thanks to the effort of a team of European lawyers. She first arrived in Lesbos in 2015, after a night spent in the freezing waters between the Turkish coast and the Greek island. She and her sister Yusra had left Damascus a few weeks earlier with the intention of reaching Europe. In Syria you had raged for four years what was then defined as “the worst global humanitarian crisis”, the consequence of an ongoing conflict that has killed at least half a million people.
Yusra Mardini
From Istanbul the two sisters had been joined to a group of migrants who would have reached Greece by sea from Izmir. Left to fend for themselves on an overloaded rubber dinghy, the migrants risked drowning. At that moment Sara and Yusra, daughters of a swimming master, jumped into the water and, together with two other men, dragged the rubber boat for three hours towards the coveted Greek beach. Their story had gone around the world, so much so that the two sisters obtained refugee status in Germany. Today Sara has to answer very heavy charges: human trafficking, money laundering, fraud, belonging to a criminal organization. And she faces 25 years in prison. However, Greece does not allow her to return to her territory. And Sara follows, through her lawyer, the legal proceedings from Berlin, where she tries to move forward and build a normal life for herself.
Update – For the World Cup in Budapest (from 18 July) the US has chosen the head coaches: Anthony Nesty, will lead the men’s national team, Todd DeSorbo the women’s team.
Giorgia Palmas and Filo Magnini with the presenter Silvia Toffanin
Update 2 – “Thanks to Giorgia’s love (Palmas, ed) I managed to overcome the sentence that sentenced me to four years of disqualification for doping, the worst moment of my life”. Thus Filippo Magnini interviewed by Barbara Petrillo for Studio Mattina di Canale 9. “When I was cleared we were together – added the former two-time champion of the 100m sl world – we hugged and screamed for joy. Those unfair accusations took my sleep away and made us both feel bad. His was precious advice for me to overcome that moment. Now I’d like to tell young athletes what happened to me. A real witch hunt that I do not wish on anyone “.