Sixteen years have passed today since the arson of a branch of the Marfin-Egnatia bank in Athens, known as the “Marfin tragedy”
On 5 May 2010, during demonstrations against the economic measures for the signing of the loan agreement, unknown persons threw Molotov cocktails at the bank while about 25-30 employees were inside. Most of them managed to escape, five people were rescued by the fire brigade and three people died of suffocation due to toxic fumes and thick smoke. The identity of the perpetrators of the attack has not been confirmed so far.
No march has been held since then in memory of the unfortunate souls of Marfin Bank. Angeliki Papathanasopoulou 32 years and 4 months pregnant, Epaminondas Tsakalis 36 years and Paraskevi Zoulia 35 years.
The court, in 2013, announced the guilt of three of the four defendants for the offences of manslaughter by negligence and bodily harm: Konstantinos Vassilakopoulos (Marfin CEO), Emmanuel Velonakis (building security officer) and Anna Vakalopoulou (store manager).
There were other employees inside the building, many of whom either climbed into an adjacent building or jumped from balconies. Firefighters managed to rescue just 5 people, and the testimony that was given in court was shocking.
