Fire in the Eye: Six defendants guilty of the tragedy

On Monday morning, the Three-member Misdemeanor Court of Athens announced its decision on the guilt of the 21 defendants in the trial for the fire in Mati with 104 dead, after a long hearing.

In total the court found 6 of the 21 defendants guilty with relatives of the victims in the room shouting "shame on you" at the court. "Well done, well done, you have lost a child", "all innocent, they should have gone to prison by themselves", the relatives of the victims shouted.

In particular, with its decision, the court followed the prosecutor's proposal and declared them guilty:

– Sotiris Terzoudis then chief of the Fire Department (negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm for the diversion of a helicopter)
– Vassilis Matthaiopoulos then deputy chief of the Fire Department (negligent homicide for the death of 9 people at sea),
– Ioannis Fostieris then head of ESKE (manslaughter by negligence)
– Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos then Commander of the Athens Fire Services (negligent homicide for 102 people, negligent bodily harm for 32 people),
– Charalambos Hioni, then Commander of the Eastern Attica Fire Services (negligent homicide for 102 people, negligent bodily harm for 32 people) and
– Konstantinos Angelopoulos, a resident from whose yard the fire started.

Firefighters Christos Golfinos, Filippos Pandeleakos, Damianos Papadopoulos, Christos Drosopoulos, Georgios Portozoudis and Stefanos Kolokouris, the then officer in the Aerial Media of ELAS Charalambos Syrogiannis, the then general secretary of Civil Protection Ioannis Kapaki were found not guilty s, the then regional governor Attica Rena Dourou and the then mayors of Marathon Ilias Psinakis and Pentelis Dimitrios-Stergios Kapsalis.

Vaios Thanasias, then deputy mayor of Marathon municipality, Evangelos Bournos, then mayor of Rafina-Pikermiou, Antonis Palpatzis, then deputy mayor of Rafina-Pikermiou, were found not guilty, despite the prosecutor's proposal to the contrary.

Source: protothema.gr