A long-awaited trial into Greece’s worst train tragedy resumed on Wednesday after courtroom chaos forced its adjournment last month.
Thirty-six people are on trial over the February 2023 collision that claimed 57 lives, mostly students returning from a carnival weekend.
After a three-year investigation, the trial formally began on March 23. But it made little headway because of crowding in the courtroom in the central town of Larissa.
Hundreds of people tried to enter the courtroom to follow the trial last month. Lawyers complained that the venue was so packed that they barely had room to open their files and that fire safety regulations were not respected.
Survivors of the accident and family members had to sit in the seats of the accused, most of whom were absent.
On Wednesday, police only allowed participants legally scheduled to attend the trial to enter, but there were still complaints.
“We can’t see anything,” Panos Ruci, who lost his son in the accident and held a hunger strike last year after the authorities refused to exhume his remains for tests, told reporters.
“All the relatives must be inside the courtroom. The trial cannot take place if the relatives are not inside the courtroom,” said Maria Karystianou, a prominent campaigner who lost her daughter in the collision.
There are also complaints about the presiding judge having forbidden photos and videos from being taken in the courtroom.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the weekend argued that the courtroom — a remodelled conference hall that cost hundreds of thousands of euros — was “built specifically for this major trial” and was “among the most functional and modern in Europe”.
– Repeated warnings –
More than 350 witnesses are due to be heard and some 250 lawyers are accredited for the trial, which is expected to take years to reach a verdict.
It is being conducted around 30 kilometres (nearly 20 miles) from the spot near Tempe, central Greece, where a freight train and a passenger locomotive smashed into each other on February 28, 2023.
Among those to testify are survivors and family members of the victims, some of whom are believed to have burnt to death after surviving the initial collision.
Those in the dock include the station master on duty on the night of the accident, other railway officials and two Italian former employees of the trains’ parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.
The head-on collision exposed the parlous state of safety precautions in Greece’s railway network, despite European Union grants for its modernisation and repeated warnings from unions.
On Monday, a separate court in Athens awarded 400,000 euros ($464,000) to the relatives of one of the victims, accepting failings by the Greek state.
– Evidence thought lost –
Thirty-three of the defendants in the Larissa trial face criminal charges and risk up to life in prison.
None of the accused are currently in jail, although some have served time in pre-trial detention.
Tens of thousands of people protested nationwide last month to mark the third anniversary of the crash, which sparked widespread and lasting anger.
No political official will be in the dock in this trial.
Two former ministers, including ex-transport minister Kostas Karamanlis, were referred to justice by parliament in a separate procedure, but only face misdemeanour charges at present.
Valuable evidence is feared to have been lost when, just days after the collision, a bulldozer levelled the site.
Despite the disaster, Mitsotakis comfortably won re-election just months later and went on to defeat two parliamentary votes of no-confidence on the issue.
Elections are scheduled in Greece next year. Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy party leads in opinion polls, but is not expected to gain enough support for an absolute majority.
bur-jph/sbk