ATHENS – After facing a barrage of complaints from activists and human rights groups, Greece won’t further press charges against dozens of international aid workers accused of spying and human trafficking for helping save refugees.

Critics said it was bizarre for Greece to hound non-government organizations (NGOs) and refugee groups workers, some of whom were arrested for rescuing people at sea and charged with helping them get into Greece unlawfully.

The cases involved defendants who authorities said facilitated entry into Greece through the island of Lesbos, close to Turkey, which is supposed to hold refugees and migrants as part of an essentially-suspended 2016 swap deal with the European Union.

Most of the 35 people, accused in 2020 of setting up a criminal organization and providing support to traffickers ferrying migrants, were German nationals, said Reuters, pointing to court documents showing the charges being dropped.

The rest included people from Norway, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland and Bulgaria. They were arrested and had denied wrongdoing at the time and it was said the cases were given up because there wasn’t enough evidence.

“The detailed investigation of the case file has resoundingly quashed the police narrative which was pure fiction,” said Zacharias Kesses, a lawyer representing some of the aid workers who were prosecuted.

The case was based on a 2020 operation by the National Intelligence Service EYP and the anti-terrorism unit with the code name Alkmini, and involved undercover agents who traveled as migrants from Turkey to Lesbos, the news agency said.

EYP got involved because the workers, who were using an alarm phone for migrants and asylum seekers in need of rescue at sea, were thought to have passed on information on Greek Coast Guard movements and vessel equipment.

But a magistrate’s investigation concluded the information and visual material collected were not confidential. “There is not enough evidence to support the accusations against the defendants,” the documents said.