ENGLISH SECTION
03/06/2025 | 16:24
Appeals court delivers guilty verdict for 10 accused in Mati trial, acquits 11
Eight former senior officers in the fire brigade, including the former fire brigade chief, as well as the former general secretary for civil protection Ioannis Kapakis and the man responsible for starting the fire were on Tuesday found guilty for the deaths and injuries from the July 2018 wildfire in Mati, in a verdict delivered by a Three-Member Misdemeanour Court.
The judges found that these officials had through actions or omissions, by virtue of their position, contributed to the 100-plus deaths and dozens of injuries caused by the fire that tore through the seaside town, among citizens left helpless by the authorities in the face of the advancing flames.
They were found guilty of multiple counts of homicide through negligence, causing bodily harm through negligence and for other specific acts and omissions.
The court also unanimously acquitted 11 defendants standing trial, including the former Attica region governor Rena Dourou and the then mayors of Marathonas, Rafina-Pikermi and Penteli. Based on the court’s decision, there was no evidence of possible intent that could support the offence of endangerment to a criminal degree.
For the key verdicts, the court’s decisions were unanimous, while in other cases they were reached by majority.
Among those found guilty were former fire brigade chief Sotiris Terzoudis, who was additionally found guilty for diverting a helicopter from Eastern Attica to the Corinth refineries, failing to mobilise coast guard vessels, not relocating aircraft so that they would not be immobilised by the weather and not recommending an organised precautionary evacuation.
The fire brigade deputy chief Vasilieos Matheopoulos was found unanimously guilty of the same charges, as was the head of the joint operations coordination centre Ioannis Fostieris, the head of the 199 emergency call service Christos Golfinos, the director of the fire brigade’s civil protection operations centre Filippos Panteleakos, the chief of the Nea Makri fire brigade station Damianos Papadopoulos, who was found to be absent from the fire, the commander of the Athens Fire Brigade Command Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos and the commander of the East Attica Fire Brigade Charalambos Chionis for not providing briefings on the course of the fire.
The court acquitted the pilots of fire brigade helicopters, the head of the EMAK rescue teams, senior police officers and local government officials but found Daou resident Konstantinos Aggelopoulos, responsible for starting the fire, guilty of arson through negligence.
The court will now consider extenuating circumstances before handing down sentences.
Source: ANA – MPA
