M.M., 28, a recognized Afghan refugee mother of four who attempted to set herself on fire in February 2021, was unanimously found guilty of intentional arson yesterday afternoon and given a suspended 15-month prison sentence. in the temporary camp of Lesvos in Kara-Tepe. The restrictive conditions that were imposed on her also cease. In a detailed report by K and Yiannis Papadopoulos in May 2022, on the eve of the trial held yesterday after recess, it is explained that the defendant was hospitalized with thermal burns to her hands, head, back and legs. She had already received political asylum and was on the list of the resettlement program in Germany, but because of her late pregnancy, doctors banned the trip. The travel delay combined with her being 9 months pregnant with her fourth child and being weighed down by the Moria hospital arson, the episodes, the coronavirus incarceration and the then uncertain conditions of care at the hospital. the makeshift camp led her, she stated in her original apology, to attempt suicide. She herself was not present at the trial on the recommendation of the doctors treating her in Germany, while she is raising four children with her husband and the help of humanitarian organizations.

She was represented by Efi Dusis and Vassilis Kerasiotis, lawyers for the HIAS organization, while her husband was present and testified, the psychologist who watched over her after her birth at the Mytilini hospital, Dimitra Mantsari, and an engineer who worked at the camp, who he laid out the condition scenes.

The difficulties in translating her husband’s testimony were evident, as there were two interpreters, one for Farsi and the other for English and Greek, as intermediaries. As stated during the hearing, M.M. in desperation, he kicked everyone out of the tent and set fire to her clothes with a lighter. Luckily for her, a neighbor, a camp tenant, intervened immediately and her life was saved. She was transferred to the Mytilini hospital, gave birth a few days later, and then was admitted to the hospital’s psychiatric clinic.

“It never occurred to her that an attempt at self-immolation would bring her to justice as accused of arson, which posed a threat to the health of other people,” the defenders emphasized.