Marjan Jamali was deprived of her liberty for 598 days and was even separated from her child for seven months. She experienced particular solidarity in a political mountain village in Calabria.
On Monday, the criminal court in Locri in southern Italy completely acquitted Marjan Jamali, a young woman of Iranian origin, of the charge of migrant smuggling. She had arrived with her then eight-year-old son in Roccella Ionica on the Calabrian coast on a refugee boat in October 2023. She was arrested immediately afterwards, accused of being part of a smuggling organisation.
Among other things, the judiciary accused her of taking on certain tasks on the boat during the crossing and distributing food. According to the prosecution, she had thus supported criminal structures. The Public Prosecutor’s Office therefore demanded a six-year prison sentence for Jamali as well as compensation totalling €15,000 per person on the boat – over €1.5 million in total.
During the trial, two witnesses were heard who had made the crossing together with Jamali. They confirmed the accused’s account that she had been travelling as a refugee herself and had played no part in organising the journey. She had also been sexually harassed by three men during the crossing – in the presence of her child. The Iraqis later incriminated her as an alleged smuggler – but they could no longer be found for the trial.
The prosecution relied, among other things, on Jamali’s membership of a Telegram group that was allegedly used by traffickers – a weak and misunderstood piece of evidence, according to the defence. However, her lawyer presented a receipt for a payment made by Jamali’s family to a Turkish agency during the trial – proof that she had financed her crossing herself and was therefore travelling as a passenger. According to the Italian newspaper ‘Il Manifesto’, an Egyptian migrant who confessed to being the boat driver and a family traced in Germany also confirmed that Jamali had only been a passenger.
Jamali was brought before the court together with another defendant, Amir Babai. The two had already travelled to Italy via Turkey together. Babai was also exonerated by witnesses during the trial. According to Jamali, he had also endeavoured to protect her from assaults during the crossing. The court in Locri imposed a prison sentence of six years and one month and a fine of €1.5 million on Babali. His defence has announced an appeal.
Activists from Tre Dita protested against the criminalisation of political refugees in front of the court building on Monday. Kurdish director and activist Maysoon Majidi, president of the organisation, was also present. She had also been charged with similar offences and was acquitted in February – she had previously spent ten months in prison.
“Refugees are not criminals. The term smuggler is meaningless. Human traffickers never get on the boats themselves – refugees, on the other hand, risk their lives,” said Majidi at the protest in front of the court. She referred to the situation in the Kurdish part of Iran in particular, where at least 124 Kurds were executed in 2024, according to the human rights organisation Hana. Jamali is a victim of patriarchal laws in the Islamic Republic, Majidi claims, including the one that stipulates that after a divorce, custody of children from the age of seven is transferred 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 deprived of his liberty for 598 days. She was separated from her son for the first seven months in prison. After her release from custody, Jamali and her child waited in the Calabrian mountain village of Camini for the outcome of the trial – initially with an ankle bracelet and regular visits from the Carabinieri. These measures were only lifted in March 2025.
Jamali and her son were accommodated in Camini as part of the ‘Jungi Mundi’ reception programme, which is run by the Eurocoop social cooperative. The project promotes the reception and integration of refugees, especially families and minors, through decentralised accommodation and community activities.
The model for revitalising depopulated and dilapidated villages is internationally known thanks to Camini’s neighbouring village of Riace and its mayor Mimmo Lucano. Together with Ilaria Salis from Milan, 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. She accuses Italy’s government of ‘relentless anti-migration and racist propaganda’.
“I am very happy that everything is over, also thanks to my lawyer. Now I want to look after the future of my son, who is now nine years old. Thanks to the project in Camini, we also have a place to stay,‘ Jamali told ’nd”. Initially, she would also like to stay in the village and find a job. “I now know everyone and they all greet me when they see me. They help the refugees and have also helped me a lot.” She is worried about her parents, who live in the centre of Tehran. They had to flee from Israeli bombardments to a family home in the mountains north of the capital.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Marjan Jamali after her release from house arrest at ‘Jungi Mundi’ in Camini.
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