Tempi trial: Prosecutor against calling Georgiadis – Relatives' testimonies
The prosecutor of the Larissa Three-Judge Court of Felonies has recommended rejection of the Georgiadis and Markopoulos summons. Relatives of victims gave testimony yesterday, with further testimony continuing today.
Prosecutor against calling politicians in Tempi trial – Relatives' testimonies continue
The trial concerning the railway tragedy at Tempi continues today, Wednesday, before the Larissa Three-Judge Court of Felonies with testimony from relatives of victims. According to Dikastiko.gr, during yesterday's hearing the prosecutor took a position on a series of motions submitted to the court by the family of assistant driver Nikolaos Nalbanis.
Prosecutor's "no" for Georgiadis and Markopoulos
The prosecutor recommended rejection of the motion to examine Adonis Georgiadis and Dimitri Markopoulos as witnesses. At the same time, she reserved her position on the motion for laboratory expertise on Nalbanis's work mobile telephone.
The particular mobile phone had been handed to the deceased driver's fiancée a few days after the accident and was submitted to the court the previous week. The purpose of the expertise is to establish whether there was any attempt at communication with the station master or any other person after the passenger train departed from Larissa Railway Station. The prosecutor recommended that the device be seized and that the relevant seizure motion be drawn up by the competent police authority.
Three new motions from the prosecution side
Earlier, the prosecution side submitted three new motions. The first was submitted, through his lawyers, by Pavlos Aslanidis, father of victim Dimitri Aslanidis: it is requested that bone fragments preserved, according to the lawyers, at Larissa Court of Appeals be located, counted and identified, and that special examinations then be carried out to ascertain the cause of death. These bone fragments had been found and collected from locations in Larissa where debris and soil from the site of the collision had been transported.
The other two motions concern the calling as witnesses of seven former secretaries general of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for the period 2016–2023, as well as the submission of documents exchanged by the Greek government with the European Commission regarding railway safety.
"Our children left unjustly" – Testimonies that moved the court
During yesterday's hearing, relatives of victims also gave testimony. Lazaros Porfyridis, father of Kalliopi Porfyridi, stated: "Our children left unjustly. They are victims of a state that shows no respect for human life."
Her mother, Anna Karatzoglou, after describing the anxiety of the first hours and the sight she witnessed at the two Larissa hospitals, turned to the question of interventions at the collision site: "By what right did they scatter my child. Why such haste, why such panic?" She added: "Why was my child burnt to ash? If some people had done their job properly, my child would be at home. What I require of you, apart from broadening the indictment, is to punish all those responsible for the death of my child. Trust in Justice is not a given, I hope it will be earned."
Dimitri Bournazis, who lost his father and brother at Tempi, testified: "I cannot believe that my father and brother were lost because two trains were moving on the same track. It is unthinkable. I would like justice to be served for these people. It could have been any of us on that train. The sentences must be exemplary."
The family of inspector Panayiotis Chatzicharalambous testified: "From the next day we are living dead. From that evening two families were destroyed. We are broken apart. In one night everything went out. Warm plea that whatever decision you take, put in the feeling of a parent as well."
Angelos Bozo, son of canteen employee Paulini Bozo, testified: "If we had known that the situation on the trains was like this, we would not have let him work there." He also described what he witnessed in the first hours at the collision site, among other things "a blue van that was putting black bags", and mentioned that his father had spoken to him about broader problems on the railway, such as "frequent delays."
Source: Dikastiko.gr