Deadly flood in Mandra: Today the decision for the 21 accused

The time of the judicial judgment for catastrophic flood in Mandra in November 2017which left behind 25 dead, arrives today, when the decision of the Three-Member Misdemeanor is expectedfor the 21 accused executives of the Local Government and competent state services.

More than five years after the deadly course of the waters that flooded the city in the early hours of November 15, 2017 after heavy rain, the court will announce its decision on the although which of the accused are criminally liable for what unfolded on the day in question. The judges, evaluating the actions and omissions of each competent executive that may have influenced the tragic result, will announce their decision for each of the accused.

Defendants in the case are the then governor of Attica Rena Dourou, the then mayors of Mandra, Elefsina and Megara but also at the time in question competent vice-governors, employees of the technical services of the municipality of Mandra, employees of the Egaleo Forest Service and the Egaleo and Elefsina Town Planningand executives of public bodies. The defendants are facing charges that, on a case-by-case basis, relate to the offenses of causing flood by negligence, homicide by serial negligence, bodily harm, breach of duty and breach of building codes, as according to the case file they are the ones who each from their position were responsible for the proper functioning of the city’s infrastructure.

If the judges adopt prosecutorial proposal then they will preach guilty of 20 of the 21 accused for the offenses attributed to them other than the breach of duty for which the Chief Prosecutor requested acquittal for the majority of those responsible.

In its proposal last March, the Prosecutor of the Three-Member Misdemeanor Court Petroula Makriwas reported in “chronicle of a pre-announced crime” and had explained, citing the legislation governing each service involved, that the heavy downpour that hit West Attica at the time in question could not have ended in the tragedy with the 25 dead and the huge material damage, if action had been taken.

Listing the responsibilities of each defendant, Ms. Makri had started with the then governor of Attica, first on the list of 21 people on trial for the case, saying that Ms. Douros for more than ten reasons regarding her omissions in a series of duties, should found guilty. According to the Prosecutor, the accused failed to launch, implement and complete a series of projects and interventions, as well as to supervise “extremely important” anti-flood projects, cleaning streams, but also key road construction interventions on the old National Road, which would include .

Mrs. Makri had also attributed a series of omissions to the then mayor of Mandra, to whom she “charged” inaction in critical interventions, mainly for the demolition of arbitrary buildings, emphasizing that among the arbitrary constructions were some of the municipality itself that had been erected at critical points or on the banks of streams.

Respectively, he had pleaded guilty to two vice-governors, the mayors of Elefsina and Megara and officials of the Forest Service and Technical Services, while he had referred extensively to the responsibilities of those responsible for the complete control of streams and their condition by the services in charge of the police. . He had even pleaded guilty to breach of duty for only two defendants with those duties, unlike all the other defendants for whom he sought acquittal, in the absence of a benefit for this offense.

According to the prosecutor’s proposal, the only defendant to be acquitted is an employee of the stream policing committee, as she was absent for long periods in legal licenses.