Eye: Outrage over ‘cover-up recital’, appeal and risk of statute of limitations – 2024-04-30 21:26:50

Anger and indignation were caused by the decision of the Three-member Misdemeanor Court of Athens in the case of the tragedy of many deaths in Mati.

The court decided a sentence of 3 to 111 years on the six convicted for the fires in eastern Attica that led to the death of 104 citizens.

It is noted, however, that only 5 years can be served, with the court converting the sentences into monetary penalties of 10 euros per day, with the defendants who were convicted being asked to pay approximately 40,000 euros.

Relatives and friends who were in the courtroom on Holy Monday erupted upon hearing the decision.

The relatives are preparing an appeal

Now the eyes are focused on the next moves of the lawyers of the relatives of the victims, who are expected to submit a request to the Prosecutor’s Office to appeal the decision, both in terms of the part of the sentences imposed on the convicted, as well as in terms of the part of the acquittals .

The risk of limitation

The president of the Supreme Court, Ioanna Klapas Christodouleas, will request the speeding up of the clean-up of the decision of the Three-member Misdemeanor Court of Athens regarding Mati, in order to avoid the risk of statute of limitations.

It is reminded that next July will be 6 years since the tragedy in Mati and the case must immediately be determined and tried in the Court of Appeal and then in the Supreme Court in the next two years, so that there are no statutes of limitations for crimes.

“Cover Recital”

“Yesterday was a shocking day in court,” says Aristides Cheroubeim, a relative of the victims, speaking to MEGA.

“It was very crowded, many relatives of victims came. The shocking thing was to hear the mothers who lost their children protesting. A certain mother got up, went in front of the accused and very politely asked ‘how will I live?’ You can’t say anything else about these scenes.”

“In the 6 years, and with the preliminary trial, it has become known that many times the investigator requested an upgrade of the indictment. All three times he was rejected. This created an atmosphere. Most of the time it was rejected for formal reasons”, he says, adding:

“Starting the trial, and moving forward, we saw the attitude of the seat. Since he was being tried as a misdemeanor, there was little hope for any substantial punishment. We reached the prosecutor’s proposal, which narrowed things down a lot. Lawyers say that it is customary for the prosecutor to be, what was written but was not related, a ‘catapal’. He tends to be stricter and the court more lenient. Throughout this case, judges have asked for a felony and prosecutors have refused to upgrade. The same thing happened inside the room.”

According to Mr. Cherubim:

“I was waiting for proof that 104 people didn’t set themselves on fire at the same time due to some ‘compulsion’. Six years now there has been a cover-up recital, there is a propaganda recital. (…) Mati had no urban planning problems, or at least it is a typical area. If the fire had escaped and spread to the camps and Zuberi, you can’t imagine what we would be talking about today.”

“The court accepted that the fire started at 16.41 because there is a recorded video from a house. However, there are countless testimonies that the fire started 10 and 20 minutes later. It is very convenient to tease out the start time of the fire to say that if the first fire engine arrived at the scene at 17.00 it didn’t take half an hour to arrive but… The big problem regardless of the weather conditions or the fire engines, they never got inside in Mati until 10:30 p.m., that was why they didn’t inform people to leave,” he added.

“I remember the speech of a defense lawyer saying in the courtroom ‘do you see who you are trying here? The state is on trial here. (…) Justice will not come”, he concluded.

“We all know there were people who got away with it”

For his part, the special police analyst, Stavros Balaskas, notes:

“Those of us who lived through this drama and this disaster and this crime, we understand very well what happened and how it happened and why it happened. We all know that there were people who escaped it relying on the backs of ordinary policemen who gave their lives.”

“The police officers entered the fire by themselves, the DIAS patrolled with wet handkerchiefs in the ashes, entered the water and took the children, as did the Coast Guard. They gave fuel and some others were spared who had made a bad plan”, he added.

As he says:

“Possibly, the system has incompetent people for the appropriate positions. When there are incompetent people for positions of responsibility… Most positions of responsibility are positions which are placements we could say. For example, the leader of EL.AS does not enter with his sword. There are 6 people, the other 5 may be more skilled, but he has the kone and becomes the leader. The most capable does not always become a leader”.