Tempe: Former Deputy Minister Triantopoulou referred to Special Court over removal of rubble at tragedy site
Greece's Supreme Court has referred former Deputy Minister Triantopoulou and four other defendants to the Special Court for breach of duty in connection with the removal of rubble at the site of the rail disaster.
Tempe: Special Court case for Triantopoulou and four others — referral over removal of rubble at tragedy site
According to In.gr, Greece's Supreme Court has issued a ruling referring to the Special Court former Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Christos Triantopoulou, former Thessaly Regional Governor Kostas Agorastos, and three other non-political figures. The charge: breach of duty (misdemeanour) over the so-called "removal of rubble" at the site of the deadly rail disaster in Tempe, just hours after the accident which claimed 57 lives. This development opens the path for the first Special Court case of the Mitsotakis government.
At the same time, a second judicial investigation is underway concerning the then-responsible minister Kostas Ach. Karamanlis.
Government downplays the referral
Maximos was not surprised by the decision. Government sources rushed to emphasise that "this is not a decision, but an intermediate stage" and that "the court will provide the final answers".
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis attacked the opposition, noting that Triantopoulou "from the outset requested to be tried by his natural judges" and that the opposition "now speaks of vindication". Marinakis also recalled the OPEKEPE case, in which New Democracy MPs "hastily were characterised as defendants" and subsequently were acquitted.
Triantopoulou himself announced that he will not be a candidate in the next elections, respecting, as he said, "the status of the members of the Judicial Council", whilst disagreeing with the published findings, which he committed to refuting before the Special Court. He characterised the case as "conspiracy theory and political scheming" and claimed that the Tempe tragedy "has become the subject of political exploitation with the aim of targeting the government and the prime minister".
Former Thessaly Regional Governor Kostas Agorastos said outside the regional authority headquarters that "the Thessaly region had no operational role nor any other role there, it had no authority whatsoever". "This trial is political for me", he added.
Opposition: "Who gave the orders?"
In the context of the referral, there returned to collective memory the statement by Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis "Those who speak of the rubble removal are rubbish" — a statement which the government appears to have forgotten.
ELSA deputy press spokesman Anna Papadopoulou noted that "criminal liability will be judged by the courts", whilst the party of Amalia posed its questions relentlessly: "Who decided the alteration? Who gave the relevant orders? Who knew? Why do some appear as mere bystanders at the site of the tragedy?".
Alexis Tsipras demanded the resignation of Justice Minister Floridis, saying that "if he has the elementary political decency to resign" he should do so, otherwise Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis "must dismiss him".
PASOK characterised the development as a continuation of its proposal for the establishment of a preliminary inquiry committee, noting that "accountability is a fundamental obligation towards citizens" and asked whether the government continues to consider the parliamentary procedure "unnecessary". Its position: "no cover-up, no preferential treatment, no institutional exception".
The KKE characterised the referral as "self-evident", noting that "it proves what the government has been trying to hide for nearly four years: its enormous responsibility for covering up the Tempe crime". The Perissos party also criticised "the wholly inadequate investigation, the deficient indictment and the fragmentation into separate trials".
SYRIZA judged that the referral "completely exposes the government and its provocative claims that there was nothing reprehensible with the hasty removal of rubble from the area". The New Left stated that the referral came despite "the tireless efforts of the Mitsotakis government to let the deputy minister off the hook" and the "blatant unconstitutional methods of the government majority".
Families of victims: "The hour of accountability has come"
Families of victims of the rail disaster expressed satisfaction. Maria Theodori, mother of Vaios Vlachos, stated: "For a year my husband and I searched the fields of Larisa to find what was missing from our child. With today's referral, the hour of accountability has come for Mr. Triantopoulou and the others. The time has come for our family to get answers about our child. We will continue the struggle for truth and justice".
Source: In.gr