Calabria | Human Smuggling Trial: Freedom for Marjan Jamali

On Monday, the criminal court in Locri, southern Italy, completely acquitted Marjan Jamali, a young woman of Iranian origin, of the charge of human trafficking. She arrived in Roccella Ionica on the Calabrian coast with her eight-year-old son on a refugee boat in October 2023. Immediately afterward, she was arrested on charges of being part of a human trafficking organization.

The court accused her, among other things, of performing certain tasks on the boat during the crossing and distributing food. In doing so, the indictment alleged, she supported criminal structures. The public prosecutor therefore demanded a six-year prison sentence for Jamali and damages of €15,000 per person on the boat—a total of over €1.5 million.

During the trial, two witnesses who had made the crossing with Jamali were heard. They confirmed the defendant's account that she herself was traveling as a refugee and had played no role in organizing the trip. Furthermore, she was sexually harassed by three men during the crossing – in the presence of her child. The Iraqis later accused her of being a human smuggler – but they could not be found for the trial.

The prosecution relied, among other things, on her membership in a Telegram group allegedly used by human traffickers – weak and misunderstood evidence, according to the defense. Her lawyer, however, presented a receipt at trial for a payment Jamali's family made to a Turkish agency – proof that she had financed her crossing herself and was therefore traveling as a passenger. According to the Italian newspaper "Il Manifesto," an Egyptian migrant who identified himself as the boat captain and a family tracked down in Germany also confirmed that Jamali was merely a passenger.

Jamali was tried together with another defendant, Amir Babai. The two had already traveled together via Turkey to Italy. Babai was also exonerated by witnesses during the trial. According to Jamali, he had also tried to protect her from attacks during the crossing. The court in Locri sentenced Babali to six years and one month in prison and a fine of 1.5 million euros. His defense team announced an appeal.

Activists from the organization Tre Dita protested against the criminalization of political refugees in front of the courthouse on Monday. Kurdish director and activist Maysoon Majidi, president of the organization, was also present. She had also been charged with similar charges and acquitted in February after spending ten months in prison.

"Refugees are not criminals. The term smuggler is meaningless. Human traffickers never board the boats themselves – refugees, on the other hand, risk their lives," Majidi said at the protest in front of the court. She pointed to the situation in particular in the Kurdish part of Iran, where, according to the human rights organization Hana, at least 124 Kurds were executed in 2024. Jamali, she said, is a victim of patriarchal laws in the Islamic Republic, including the one that stipulates that after a divorce, custody of children from the age of seven onwards passes to the father. "Marjan just wanted to live in peace with her eight-year-old son," Majidi continued.

However, this was initially not possible in Italy either. Jamali was subject to 598 days of detention. During the first seven months in prison, she was separated from her son. After her release from pre-trial detention, Jamali and her child waited for the outcome of the proceedings in the Calabrian mountain village of Camini – initially wearing an ankle monitor and receiving regular visits from the Carabinieri. These measures were not lifted until March 2025.

Jamali and her son were accommodated in Camini as part of the "Jungi Mundi" reception program run by the social cooperative Eurocoop. The project promotes the reception and integration of refugees, especially families and minors, through decentralized accommodation and community activities.

The model for revitalizing depopulated and decaying villages is internationally known thanks to Camini's neighboring village of Riace and its mayor, Mimmo Lucano. Together with Milanese Ilaria Salis, he successfully ran for the left-green list in the European Parliament last year. "Marjan's story is not an isolated case – it reflects the violence inflicted on many people by a system that treats migrants as an existential threat," Salis told "nd" on Tuesday. The Italian government accuses her of "relentless anti-immigration and racist propaganda."

"I'm very happy that it's all over, thanks in part to my lawyer. Now I want to focus on the future of my son, who is now nine years old. Thanks to the project in Camini, we also have accommodation," Jamali told "nd." For now, she also wants to stay in the village and find a job. "I know everyone now, and they all greet me when they see me. They help the refugees and have helped me a lot too." She is worried about her parents, who live in the center of Tehran. They fled the Israeli bombings to a family home in the mountains north of the capital.