A long-awaited trial into Greece’s worst train tragedy was adjourned to April 1, amid chaotic scenes in a courtroom too small to handle the huge interest in the case, officials said on Monday, March 23.
Hundreds of people turned up for the trial, leading to angry complaints from lawyers that the venue was “insultingly” unsuitable, and booing from family relatives.
Thirty-six people face charges and over 350 witnesses were due to be heard at the trial that opened in the central city of Larissa, near where a freight train and a passenger train collided, leaving 57 dead, on February 28, 2023. Most of the dead were students returning from a carnival weekend.
The two trains had run on the same track for more than 10 minutes without triggering an alarm. The disaster exposed the parlous state of the Greek railway network’s safety precautions – despite European Union grants for their modernisation, and repeated warnings from unions.
The head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Laura Kovesi, said the collision could have been avoided if the signalling system had been modernised in time using EU funds.
33 of 36 defendants risk life sentences
The accused include the duty station master, Vassilios Samaras, who was arrested the day after the collision, two other station masters who had left their posts before the end of their shift and two Italian former employees of the trains’ parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato. Managers and employees of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), the rail network operator, are also on trial, as well as two senior transport ministry officials.
They are accused of having committed “acts dangerous to the safety of railway traffic (…) resulting in the death of a large number of people and serious bodily injuries to a large number of people,” according to the indictment, which was seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The trial is expected to last several years. Thirty-three of the defendants face criminal charges and risk prison sentences of up to life imprisonment. None of the accused are currently in prison, though some have served time in pre-trial detention.
‘An absolute disgrace and contempt’
The accident – now commonly known as the “Tempi crime” – sparked widespread anger in the country that has never subsided. Tens of thousands of people joined protests nationwide to mark the accident’s third anniversary last month.
After the trial was adjourned, a prominent member of the association of victims’ families, Maria Karystianou, told reporters that relatives had been “packed like sardines.” She said it was “an absolute disgrace and contempt” towards victims’ families.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis insisted that the venue chosen, a remodelled university lecture hall in the central city of Larissa, was one of the two biggest courtrooms in Greece. Marinakis told reporters that the hall had seating for over 460 people and blamed the issue on a higher-than-expected number of observers.
‘We want the truth to come out’
Among those who had been due testify on Monday were survivors and family members of the victims, some of whom are believed to have burned to death after surviving the initial collision.
“This trial is starting with great delay (…) what we want is exemplary punishment of those responsible,” Pavlos Aslanidis, whose 26-year-old son died in the accident and who heads the Association of Victims’ Families, told reporters before the start of the trial.
Karystianou, a pediatrician who led the association for years, and is now planning to launch a political party, said no investigation had been carried out into how her daughter had “burned alive” and called the trial “stunted.” “We want the truth to come out,” she said outside the courthouse on Monday.
Train workers were staging a 24-hour strike on Monday in what their union called “an act of collective remembrance, protest, and democratic vigilance.”
‘Killed our people’
No political official will be in the dock, fuelling resentment at a time when the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has already fiercely criticised for what is widely seen as a disastrous handling of the accident. Valuable evidence was also lost when, just days after the collision, a bulldozer levelled the site.
There are also claims by the opposition and civil society that officials are shielding those responsible. Communist party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas on Monday told reporters the investigation had been “hurriedly” closed, leaving “huge gaps” in the case. He called it a “blatant cover-up.”
Two former ministers, including the ex-transport minister, Kostas Karamanlis, were also referred to justice by parliament, but face only misdemeanour charges at present.
“There are people who should be here as defendants, such as Kostas Karamanlis, who killed our people,” said Aslanidis.
“This trial clearly demonstrates all the corruption of the Greek state, the corruption that killed our children,” Christos Vlahos, a parent of one of the victims said outside the courthouse.
Despite the disaster, Prime Minister Mitsotakis comfortably won re-election just months later, and went on to defeat two votes of no-confidence on the issue.