The Minister of Justice Kostas Tsiaras announced legislative regulation – in the next period of time – in order to turn the theft of materials on the railway network from a misdemeanor into a felony, speaking on the First Program of Hellenic Radio. The matter concerns the dozens of cable thefts in the OSE while Mr. Tsiaras launched an attack on SYRIZA for the fact that this offense with the Criminal Code of 2019 from a felony became a misdemeanor.

In particular, the Minister of Justice, Kostas Tsiaras, spoke on the First Program about the new provisions that tighten the “caress” penalties for the crime of theft and theft of railway equipment, noting that they may even include provisions for life imprisonment, under conditions.

As already announced by Mr. Gerapetritis, Minister of State who also holds the portfolio of the Ministry of of transport, now this theft becomes a felony, as well as the recipients of theft are punished in a similar way, said Mr. Tsiaras.

“So we are ending this whole story, the “caress penalties” which were unfortunately imposed and which ultimately cost the safety, but possibly also the lives of dozens of our fellow human beings, will now be replaced with penalties which, I think there will be a provision that when the accident involves loss of human life, there will be up to life imprisonment. Very soon, the provisions are being prepared, they are almost ready, I think that in the next few days we will see them in the Greek Parliament,” said Mr. Tsiaras.

Asked to clarify whether life sentences could be enough, Mr. Tsiaras noted that “when the theft may involve the loss of human life, it may have to be dealt with in this way, from then on there will be a long prison term ».

“All these are provisions that we are working on, we are close to completing them, of course always in cooperation with the competent ministry and we will see them in the next period of time” he repeated.