While the anger of the Greek people is not appeased, six days after the train disaster, the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is pressuring the justice system for the investigation to move forward. In a letter to the Supreme Court prosecutor on Monday, March 6, Mr. Mitsotakis asked to give ” a priority “ to the investigations relating to the accident which occurred on February 28 and to attribute them to the services “training at the highest level”. He specified that this was a separate investigation from that carried out by “experts” appointed by the government after the accident that killed 57 people in Tempe, Thessaly, in central Greece.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked the Supreme Court “immediate and thorough clarification of all criminal matters related to the tragic Tempé train accident”.
Station master charged
Mr. Mitsotakis asked the Supreme Court’s prosecution to assess the possible criminal character “systemic errors in the railway sector, including any delay in completing the required technological upgrade of the relevant infrastructure”. On Friday, by order of the Prime Minister, a special committee of experts was created to “investigating and highlighting systemic problems and dysfunctions” that led to the train tragedy.
The accident in Tempé was mainly attributed by the authorities to a ” human error “. On Sunday, in Larissa, the town closest to the scene of this accident, the station master was charged and remanded in custody for having made a fatal error in “the death of a large number of people”a crime punishable by a sentence ranging from ten years in prison to life, according to the Greek penal code.
On Sunday, more than 12,000 protesters shouted their anger in Athens against “chronic failures” of the Greek rail network, accusing the governments of recent years of doing nothing to improve the network.