Almost fifteen months since the murder trial began fire in the Eyethe Three-member Misdemeanor Court enters today with the order of the Prosecutor Panagiotis Maniatisin the final stretch before the decision of the Justice for one of the greatest tragedies the country has experienced.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Prosecutor of the Headquarters will take the floor, who will formulate his judgment and his legal evaluation of what the case file attributes to the 21 defendants for the tragedy that unfolded on the afternoon of July 23, 2018.

The Public Prosecutor will formulate his conviction about what was done or not done and what should have been done so that the fateful afternoon did not develop into an unspeakable disaster, with 104 dead and dozens injured.

With his purchase Mr. Maniatis will give his criminal assessment for each of the defendants who are judged on whether or not they functioned as defined by the legal framework that defines their responsibilities in each phase of the tragedy that Eastern Attica experienced. Both for the prevention and emergency planning actions as well as the operational response to the fire and the protection of citizens.

The prosecutor’s proposal that will be heard today by the judges, the accused and their advocates as well as the victims whose fire either deprived them of their own, or took them physically and mentally and their advocates, will give the answer of the Prosecution Authority no not only in “their fault” but also in why and how the role of each one affected or not what happened in Mati.

The defendants are being tried, on a case-by-case basis, for the offenses of manslaughter by serial negligence by omission by those liable and not, but also by causing bodily harm by serial omission.

Mr. Maniatis, with his proposal, is invited to recommend guilt or discharge for:

*Twelve senior and senior officers of the Fire Service at the time, including the then chief and deputy chief of the Corps and the head of the Unified Coordination Center

* The then head of the Civil Protection Secretariat

* Seven elected, then officials of the Local Government, first the then Regional Governor and the relevant Deputy Regional Governor as well as the Mayors and officials, during the disputed period, of the Municipalities of Marathon, Rafina-Pikermio and Penteli

* Of the resident of Dau Pentelis who is attributed to him that the fire he set to burn dry branches caused the hell that the Eye experienced.

In their apologies, the defendants, who in some casesthey blamed their co-accused or others, declared “innocent” saying that they did the right thing, while in their majority, they emphasized that the fire that burned the Eye was a rare phenomenon with uncontrollable dynamics.

The indictment of the case is structured on the basis of the responsibilities that the twenty officials of the competent services and bodies had at the time in question, to whom it attributes unpreparedness, wrong assessments of the danger of the situation, non-immediate intervention using any means to deal with the fire against its start, delayed mobilization both at the level of prevention and at the level of reducing the consequences of the large fire with timely information and evacuation of settlements and declaration of the area in a state of emergency to rescue citizens in need.

In the hearing that has preceded the court heard the shocking statements of people who escaped the destruction, people who lost their own and also experts who analyzed issues critical to the management of the fire and its data.

In every trial, residents of Mati are in court, watching the trial, claiming, like all the victims, a moral vindication more than five years after the day that marked their lives forever.