Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1464183
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 APRIL 2022 NEWS THE three teenagers Abdalla, Amara and Kader arrived in Malta in March 2019 aboard the merchant vessel El Hiblu 1, which had rescued them from a sinking rubber boat two days earlier. Despite telling the ship- wrecked survivors that they would be brought to Europe, the captain of the El Hiblu was steering south towards Libyan shores. In his account of the events of those days in "Free the El Hiblu 3" , Abdalla Bari recalls the disappointment felt by the rescued immigrants when they realised they were being sent back to Libya. "The ship stopped, people were shouting, others were trying to jump into the water, some were falling, and some women on the other side of the boat were fainting. This spectacle took place with the captain and his crew closed in the cabin, only hours after he had sworn on the Quran not to bring us back to Libya." Although upset at the cap- tain's deceit, Abdalla recalls overcoming his anger to calm the others, and to join those who were trying to restore calm on the boat. "As the situation calmed down, the captain came out of his cabin to talk to the person who understood and spoke English while we were in front of the crowd explaining and helping." But as soon as the ship arrived in Malta, the three 'mediators', then 15, 16 and 19 years old, were arrested, thrown in jail and accused of terrorism, of hijacking the ship and of wilful destruction of property. "We were just trying to calm people down. Because of that we spent seven months and twenty days in prison and we are still in le- gal proceedings," says Abdul Kader. 'I am not a terrorist' Being labelled a terrorist – a term usually reserved to cold-blooded murderers – is something which Amara Kro- mah finds hard to stomach. "My whole life has been de- fined by my quest to live a bet- ter and decent life away from home, and despite all the chal- lenges and traumatising expe- riences I have had during the course of this journey, I have always remained peaceful and law-abiding. I am neither a ter- rorist nor do I encourage any act of terrorism in any given circumstance," writes Ama- ra Kromah, one of the three young people facing terrorism charges. Abdalla, Amara and Kader: how three teenagers were accused of terrorism Abdalla, Amara and Kader are still facing terrorism charges which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment: their crime – mediating between an angry crowd of asylum seekers and a ship captain who was steering them back to Libya. Last week they shared their plight with Pope Francis, handing him a copy of a book which documents another harrowing chapter in the criminalisation of the powerless JAMES DEBONO