For the tenth day, the forensic expert, who investigated the circumstances that turned the fire in Eastern Attica into a tragedy with 104 deaths in July 2018, is on the witness stand.

The arsonist Dimitris Liotsios who takes questions from the side of the defense of the accused, referred today to the picture of chaos and alalum that he found that there was in terms of aerial means. The witness said that, based on the evidence he gathered, the critical hours of the deadly fire 13 aerial vehicles were available that too was known to ESKE.

The defense attorney of the then chief of the Fire Department, Sotiris Terzoudis, pointed out to the witness that there are differences between the statements of aerial pilots and the entries in the handwritten diary of the Forest Fire Coordination Center. He also told him that in their statements to the investigator pilots stated that if they had flown that day, due to the weather conditions, an accident would probably have occurred.

“But can these helicopters only fly in the sun?” An attempt was made to take off and they declared weakness? Now what can I say hypothetically..” answered the witness who repeated that they could fly specific aerial vehicles and that it did not appear that they tried and failed.

The witness, during the examination of which there were discrepancies in the entries of the handwritten diary of the Forest Fire Coordinating Center and the statements of the fire pilots, said, once again, that from early on there was an image of the situation.

Mr. Liotsios even invoked a photo that had been uploaded at 17:03 on a social media account by the accused former head of the General Secretariat of Civil Protection from ESKE. “At that time, everyone was gathered and the information was known to everyone,” the inspector pointed out.