March 22: Tempe: Greece: Greece's biggest railway disaster: Massive Criminal trial set to begin tomorrow (March 23) with 36 people in the 'dock' in this crash that took 57 lives and triggered allegations that when the 'accident' occured the train was unlawfully carrying explosive materials. Visceral forensic and accountability issues abound. (The trial will be lengthy. I will drop in from time to time, HL) ..."Thirty-six people will be in the dock, includ­ing the three sta­tion­mas­ters who were on duty on the night of Feb­ru­ary 28, 2023, at Larissa Cent­ral Sta­tion, their inspector, 28 former exec­ut­ives and employ­ees of state-owned rail­way net­work man­ager OSE, ERGOSE (the projects branch of the OSE), the rail­way reg­u­lat­ory author­ity RAS, two gen­eral dir­ect­ors of the Min­istry of Trans­port and Infra­struc­ture and two former high-rank­ing exec­ut­ives of Italian-owned train oper­ator Hel­lenic Train. Thirty-three of the defend­ants face the felony charge of dan­ger­ous inter­fer­ence with fixed-track trans­port­a­tion with pos­sible intent, which car­ries a poten­tial life sen­tence (it res­ul­ted in the deaths of 57 people, injur­ies to dozens more, and wide­spread dam­age), and sev­eral mis­de­meanor charges, while the two former high-rank­ing Hel­lenic Train exec­ut­ives and an employee who served in the Human Resources Depart­ment of OSE face mis­de­mean­ors."

BACKGROUND: FROM A PREVIOUS POST OF THIS BLOG:  (11 February, 2025): "Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on January 26 outside the Greek Parliament in Athens, demanding justice for the 57 victims of the 2023 Tempi train disaster. One of the largest protests in recent years, the demonstration was mirrored by similar gatherings in more than 100 cities across Greece and Europe. The tragedy occurred on February 28, 2023, when a passenger train collided with a freight train near Tempi (sic), central Greece. Investigations revealed that the freight train was carrying 10 tons of flammable liquids, leading to a huge fireball that caused numerous fatalities. The authorities have continued to deny the existence of such cargo Protesters held banners reading “We won’t forget” and “I have no oxygen,” the latter echoing a victim’s last words during a distress call. The “I Have No Oxygen” movement, spearheaded by the Association of Tempi Accident Victims, has gained enough momentum to unite citizens in a call for accountability."

https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/5146786155178924376

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For more of Kathimerini's excellent English language rup-to-date reporting, enter ekathimerini.com in you address box: HL; 

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The trial that has been under­way since last Octo­ber con­cerns the fail­ure of OSE to provide video record­ings from the Thes­saloniki freight sta­tion – where the freight train depar­ted on the night of the crash – to invest­ig­at­ing magis­trate Bakaimis in the sum­mer of 2023, and the sub­sequent over­writ­ing of the sta­tion’s digital hard drive in the fol­low­ing months. On trial are the former chair­man and former chief exec­ut­ive officer of OSE, along with the legal rep­res­ent­at­ive of Inter­star, a private rail-freight con­tractor that has under­taken the secur­ity and video sur­veil­lance of the OSE rail­way net­work. They are charged with unlaw­ful removal of doc­u­ments, moral instig­a­tion and con­tempt."

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "The pro­cess of exhum­ing the bod­ies of nine vic­tims of the train acci­dent has evolved into a battle with legal appeals and informal com­plaints, after Larissa pro­sec­utor Kater­ina Papaioan­nou ordered the exhuma­tion and exam­in­a­tion of the remains in labor­at­or­ies in Greece. The rel­at­ives refuse the exhuma­tion under these terms – four exhuma­tion requests have already been with­drawn – as they insist on send­ing them to bet­ter equipped labor­at­or­ies abroad, and have appealed against Papaioan­nou’s order to the appro­pri­ate judi­cial coun­cil. If the coun­cil sides with the pro­sec­utor, the rel­at­ives are expec­ted to with­draw the remain­ing exhuma­tion requests. However, as three years have passed since the buri­als, the rel­at­ives are allowed to exhume the vic­tims without judi­cial approval and pro­ceed with any action they see fit. This reduces the value of any find­ings, but they will be assessed by the court, if they are presen­ted to it."

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STORY: "The Tempe train crash case, three years on," by Reporter Sofia Spingou, published by Kathimerini, on March 2, 2026.

SUB-HEADING: "At which stage are the vari­ous judi­cial pro­ceed­ings on Greece’s biggest rail­way dis­aster, and who has been indicted?

– When does the main trial on the 2023 deadly train crash begin and what is at stake?

The main trial will start on March 23, at the Three-Mem­ber Court of Appeals of Larissa, in cent­ral Greece. The presid­ing judge will be the appel­late judge Geor­gia Stefan­idou, who was trans­ferred to Larissa from Thes­saloniki last Septem­ber and will bear, among other things, the bur­den of dir­ect­ing the pro­ceed­ings.

Thirty-six people will be in the dock, includ­ing the three sta­tion­mas­ters who were on duty on the night of Feb­ru­ary 28, 2023, at Larissa Cent­ral Sta­tion, their inspector, 28 former exec­ut­ives and employ­ees of state-owned rail­way net­work man­ager OSE, ERGOSE (the projects branch of the OSE), the rail­way reg­u­lat­ory author­ity RAS, two gen­eral dir­ect­ors of the Min­istry of Trans­port and Infra­struc­ture and two former high-rank­ing exec­ut­ives of Italian-owned train oper­ator Hel­lenic Train. Thirty-three of the defend­ants face the felony charge of dan­ger­ous inter­fer­ence with fixed-track trans­port­a­tion with pos­sible intent, which car­ries a poten­tial life sen­tence (it res­ul­ted in the deaths of 57 people, injur­ies to dozens more, and wide­spread dam­age), and sev­eral mis­de­meanor charges, while the two former high-rank­ing Hel­lenic Train exec­ut­ives and an employee who served in the Human Resources Depart­ment of OSE face mis­de­mean­ors.

There is also con­cern that the mis­de­meanor charges – such as man­slaughter – could exceed the stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions, as they become timebarred in 2031. The date may seem dis­tant, but it is not if one con­siders the pace of judi­cial pro­ceed­ings in Greece, and that by then the case should have been tried in the Supreme Court. With five years remain­ing for a trial that is estim­ated to last approx­im­ately two years in the first instance, this risk does not seem an unlikely scen­ario.

– Will the crim­inal liab­il­ity of politi­cians for the acci­dent be invest­ig­ated?

The pos­sible crim­inal liab­il­ity of politi­cians – former deputy min­is­ter Chris­tos Tri­an­to­poulos and former trans­port min­is­ter Kos­tas A. Kara­man­lis – in the Tempe acci­dent is being invest­ig­ated by two judi­cial coun­cils of the Supreme Court, as stip­u­lated in art­icle 86 of the Greek Con­sti­tu­tion. Supreme Court pro­sec­utor, Dimitris Mitroulias, will handle the case file on the alleged tam­per­ing of the crash site, for which Tri­an­to­poulos is being invest­ig­ated for the mis­de­meanor of breach of duty. Seven other people are accused of par­ti­cip­at­ing in the same act, includ­ing the former regional gov­ernor

The pos­sible crim­inal liab­il­ity of politi­cians is being invest­ig­ated by two judi­cial coun­cils of the Supreme Court  of Thes­saly, Kos­tas Agoras­tos. If the Judi­cial Coun­cil decides to refer the former min­is­ters, a trial will be held at the Spe­cial Court. The case involving Kara­man­lis is at an earlier stage, fol­low­ing a decision by the Par­lia­ment to launch crim­inal pro­ceed­ings for breach of duty, based on the case file for­war­ded by the head of the invest­ig­a­tion into the crash, Sot­iris Baika­mis. The case also names another seven former gen­eral sec­ret­ar­ies of the Min­istry of Trans­port and Infra­struc­ture who are being invest­ig­ated as pos­sible accom­plices in the former Min­is­ter’s offense.

– Have all the requests sub­mit­ted by rel­at­ives of the vic­tims for exhuma­tions been sat­is­fied?

The pro­cess of exhum­ing the bod­ies of nine vic­tims of the train acci­dent has evolved into a battle with legal appeals and informal com­plaints, after Larissa pro­sec­utor Kater­ina Papaioan­nou ordered the exhuma­tion and exam­in­a­tion of the remains in labor­at­or­ies in Greece.

The rel­at­ives refuse the exhuma­tion under these terms – four exhuma­tion requests have already been with­drawn – as they insist on send­ing them to bet­ter equipped labor­at­or­ies abroad, and have appealed against Papaioan­nou’s order to the appro­pri­ate judi­cial coun­cil. If the coun­cil sides with the pro­sec­utor, the rel­at­ives are expec­ted to with­draw the remain­ing exhuma­tion requests. However, as three years have passed since the buri­als, the rel­at­ives are allowed to exhume the vic­tims without judi­cial approval and pro­ceed with any action they see fit. This reduces the value of any find­ings, but they will be assessed by the court, if they are presen­ted to it.

– What is the so-called “video trial” already under­way in Larissa about?

The trial that has been under­way since last Octo­ber con­cerns the fail­ure of OSE to provide video record­ings from the Thes­saloniki freight sta­tion – where the freight train depar­ted on the night of the crash – to invest­ig­at­ing magis­trate Bakaimis in the sum­mer of 2023, and the sub­sequent over­writ­ing of the sta­tion’s digital hard drive in the fol­low­ing months. On trial are the former chair­man and former chief exec­ut­ive officer of OSE, along with the legal rep­res­ent­at­ive of Inter­star, a private rail-freight con­tractor that has under­taken the secur­ity and video sur­veil­lance of the OSE rail­way net­work. They are charged with unlaw­ful removal of doc­u­ments, moral instig­a­tion and con­tempt.

– Will there be a trial over those respons­ible for the fail­ure to imple­ment Con­tract 717 for rail­way safety?

The case of the stalled Con­tract 717, which was signed in 2014 and should have been delivered in 2016, but ulti­mately received seven exten­sions, is also expec­ted to find its way to court in 2026. The ini­tial case file included 23 defend­ants – also accused in the main case – who face either charges of instig­a­tion of fraud related to sub­sidies or instig­a­tion to sub­mit a false cer­ti­fic­a­tion.

In the course of the invest­ig­a­tion, this part of the case was merged with a second case against 16 indi­vidu­als who are accused of breach of duty for pay­ing approx­im­ately €3 mil­lion to the con­sor­tium that had under­taken the imple­ment­a­tion of the con­tract as com­pens­a­tion for the delays.

There is another para­dox in the case: Because of Art­icle 86 of the Con­sti­tu­tion, which only allows Par­lia­ment to invest­ig­ate min­is­ters for any offences, the instig­at­ors and accom­plices in the offense are being pro­sec­uted, but not the phys­ical per­pet­rator.

The rel­ev­ant case against then-trans­port min­is­ter Kara­man­lis which con­cerned breach of duty had been for­war­ded to Par­lia­ment three years ago. As is known, his immunity was not lif­ted, which means that private cit­izens are faced with charges of instig­at­ing, aid­ing and abet­ting breach of duty, with Kara­man­lis allegedly being the phys­ical per­pet­rator of the act."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.pressreader.com/greece/kathimerini-english/20260302/281556592311191

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Related Kathimerini article: Tempe trial a crash test for our institutions. (Link Below): "The psychological and social pressure being exerted on everyone involved in the trial (with the judges and prosecutors in the front line) is absolutely enormous. The Tempe trial is not just about justice for the victims; it is also a crash test of citizens’ faith in the country’s institutions – and every “crack in the system” allows a thorn of anti-system sentiment to grow."

https://www.ekathimerini.com/opinion/1298771/tempe-trial-a-crash-test-for-our-institutions/--

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system.   Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

 FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;