By Ioanna Mandrou

Judicial proceedings are in full swing investigations in Larissa to search for those responsible for the tragic accident in view of the convening of the Appeals Plenary which was requested yesterday by the head of the Appeals Prosecution Stop Daskalopoulos.

The investigator of the case is already examining as witnesses the station masters who serve in Larissa and other employees of the OSE, while the expert reports that have already been ordered by the prosecution and are already being carried out on the causes of the fatal accident are awaited with great interest.

At the same time, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, requested in a letter from the Prosecutor’s Office of Thessaloniki to send him the case file that had been prepared for the derailment of a train in Tree Thessaloniki the 2017.The top prosecutor will reportedly study the case file in order to, if necessary, open a new investigation into the tragic event of 2017 in light of new data after the tragedy in Tempe.

Then the train had derailed, there were four dead among them and one train driver, while the other one who survived was brought to trial as responsible for the accident but was acquitted.

According to information, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court has now requested the case file for the 2017 accident, as reports indicate that both then and today there were similar complaints about responsibilities regarding the state of modernization of the railway network, which then – in 2017 – were not investigated, and it may be appropriate to do so now.

At the same time, financial prosecutor Christos Bardakis, after yesterday’s order by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, for an absolute priority investigation of all contracts that were delayed or not implemented, as it should have been for the modernization of the railway network, assigned the investigations of the projects to three prosecutors.

The prosecutor of appeals Michalis Michalopoulos – who will also be the head of the prosecutorial level – and the prosecutors Dimitris Apostolas and Athanasiou Vlachos, who in the past had handled the investigations into the 717 contract of 2014a contract for the modernization of the railway network, which was not implemented and after forty waves passed, finally there was a contract that supplemented it (supplementary), while the entire project has not been fully completed to date.

Prosecutor Athanasia Vlacho’s investigation into the 717 contract led to the filing of the complaints that caused the prosecutor’s intervention and related to public damage of 3 million euros from project delays. However, from the investigations carried out by the Transparency Authority, the conclusion of which was forwarded to the Financial Prosecutor’s Office, according to information, it did not emerge that the public suffered damage and thus the case was filed in 2021.

However, it was subsequently withdrawn in 2022, as new evidence emerged which was brought to the attention of the Financial Prosecutor by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which to this day has undertaken an investigation into a part of this case regarding the management of community funds.

However, in addition to the investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to information the Economic Prosecutor’s Office, investigating for crimes of disloyalty against the public (i.e. causing financial damage to the public) from the non-implementation of the contracts for the trains, is already investigating:

– 2005 contract for the modernization of the railway network in the section Athens, Acharnes, Liosia, Corinth.

– Contract of 2013 for the section Acharnes – Tithorea.

– Contract of 2013 also for the section Tithorea- Domokos.

– 2015 contract for the Piraeus-Athens section.

The investigations of the Economic Prosecutor’s Office, according to information, are only concerned with establishing whether there was a crime of disloyalty against the public and not other crimes.