Humanitarian aid volunteer Sean Binder will have to wait until at least next year before his trial begins in Greece.

The 27-year-old Kerryman is facing charges of human trafficking, membership of a criminal organisation and espionage relating to his efforts saving migrants in the Mediterranean.

Mr Binder was arrested on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2018 while working as a volunteer for an NGO assisting refugees and migrants.

At the time, he spent 106 days in a Greek prison before being granted bail to leave the country pending trial.

The charges against him carry a potential 25-year prison sentence and he returned earlier this week to face trial along with 23 other people.

This morning, the Lesbos court ruled that it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case, with judges deciding to send it to an appeals court in Greece.

No date has yet been set for the defendants to return – but Greece-based journalist Lydia Emmanouildou told Newstalk the process will take months, if not years.

She said Mr Binder spoke to journalists after the hearing.

“Sean Binder, in particular, said he was really disappointed and really angry because this means that this process that has already taken up years and years of his life and has already seen him spend months in a detention centre in Greece is going to continue dragging on and is going to continue to interfere with his life,” she said.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Sean’s mother Fanny said her son spent his time in Greece offering blankets and medical care to exhausted people arriving in the country.

She said the charges against him are aimed at scaring off other search and rescue humanitarian workers.