The trial of the Tempi train accident continues tomorrow, Tuesday, in GAIOPOLIS, with the objections of the defendants’ defence lawyers to the statements made in support of the prosecution’s case.
Today, the Greek State, through its representative from the Legal Council of the State, filed a representation for moral damages against the stationmaster of the evening shift at the Larissa Railway Station, his two colleagues on the afternoon shift and the then head of the Larissa Inspection Department of the Traffic Support Service (railways) of Central and Southern Greece.
After the conclusion of the statements, the defence side of the accused requested a deadline to take note of and study the legal documents so that they could submit objections.
Tension ensued between the lawyers over the timing of the deadline as the defendants’ lawyers stressed to the president that they would not have time to prepare their objections by tomorrow’s scheduled hearing. Eventually the court adjourned for tomorrow and, as the presiding judge said earlier, the next hearing will be set for a long time because arrangements will be made in the courtroom.
Earlier, before the start of the legalization process, Nikos Konstantopoulos and Zoe Konstantopoulou, both advocates for victims’ relatives, stressed that the conditions for a fair trial were not met, while the advocate for the multi-injured Loukas Apostolidis stressed to the court that police officers should be removed from the seats reserved for the accused. Today in court the defendants present were 6 out of a total of 36.
We recall that the defendants are executives and employees of OSE of ERGOSE, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Hellenic Train and the Railway Regulatory Authority. The 33 of them are charged with the felony of dangerous interference with fixed rail transport with possible malice, with acts dangerous to the safety of transport, from which a common danger to foreign objects and a danger to people could result and which resulted in: a) the death of a large number of people, b) the serious bodily injury of several people and c) significant damage to public utility installations, committed repeatedly and jointly. The 35 are also charged with the misdemeanors of manslaughter by negligent homicide by a serial offender, grievous bodily harm by negligence by a serial offender, simple bodily harm by negligence by a serial offender, while three OSE officials are also charged with the misdemeanor of dereliction of duty.
It should be noted that the Greek State’s representation for moral damages consists, as the representative of the State Legal Council said, in the insult to the citizens’ trust in the state institutions and in the serious devaluation of the administrative and supervisory function of the railway system. In addition, the attributed act constitutes a serious violation of the legal interest in the safety of transport. The representation is for the act of disturbing the safety of public transport.
