With the responsibilities which he attributes to heads of the Fire Department and ESKE for the devastating fire at Eye Panagiotis Maniatis, the prosecutor of the Three-Member Criminal Court, began his trial.

The prosecuting officer who continues, act by act, his analysis of the voluminous indictment, has already requested the guilt of the then chief of the Fire Department, Sotiris Terzoudis as well as the then commander of ESKE for a specific part of the case.

The position of Mr. Maniatis about the guilt of the two defendants concerns the fatal order to the only aerial vehicle that was above Dau Pentelis to leave and head for the Corinth refineries.

The prosecuting officer, explaining the situation that prevailed around five in the afternoon both in the fire in Sousaki Corinth and in the one in Eastern Atticasaid that the head of ESKE, essentially yielding to the requests he received from the owner of refineries and from a company executive, received a “irregular, administratively incorrect decision» to divert the Sikorsky helicopter.

He even emphasized that he was aware of the information from the fire in Eastern Atticawhich at 17.30 was already moving menacingly towards houses: “It was known that if the fire would enter the residential fabric, they would not be able to attempt an aerial attack.” The prosecutor even emphasized that the decision to divert was also ethically wrong “because it withdrew a combat weapon, while it was known that in a short time they would not be able to attempt”. The prosecutor emphasized that he is asking for the guilt of Mr. Terzoudis as well “the decisions of the Governor of ESKE are subject to his approval”.

In fact, commenting on the attitude of the then chief of the Fire Department, Mr. Maniatis said that the retired investigator had attempted to blame Mr. Fostieris, saying that his co-defendant deceived him about the diversion. “It is unthinkable that the chief of the Fire Brigade appears to be behaved and behaved by his subordinates. Mr. Terzoudis, apologizing in court, said that he trusted Mr. Fostieris. Each defendant has the right to change his position, however we can also judge…” he added.

Guilt also of Mr. Foster he also asked for the part of the charge concerning the omission to ask from the Air Force two Chinook that were available and could help.

At the same time, the prosecutor requested that the defendants Terzoudis, Fostieris and the then deputy chief of the Fire Department, Vassilis Matthaiopoulos, should not be charged. for the part of the charge charging them with failure to conduct aerial surveillance as, as he said, “care was taken and flights were made from 14.00 to 18.00”. Accordingly, it ruled that also for the charge concerning their failure to reschedule flights so that their movement is not impeded by weather, they must be acquitted: “The compensations that should have been made, were made. The side effects and malfunctions that occurred were due to other reasons and not to the omission of the three defendants.”

Earlier the prosecutor said that “it is not an exaggeration to say that in matters of fire protection and forest fire fighting the history of the place is divided into before and after July 23, 2018″. He continued by saying that the fire in Mati “was the second biggest tragedy in terms of number of victims worldwide, there were dozens of dead, injured and burned in just 2.5 hours. On July 23, 2018, in an event of very short duration, we had more than 100 dead.”

The prosecutor emphasized that “the calamity and the event we are examining reinforced the doctrine that the primary concern of the state is the protection of human life in every possible way”.

At the beginning of his sermon he said: “We are nearing the end of a marathon process in a major event that determined the history of our country”. As he said, the purpose of the trial is to identify “who was at fault, what went wrong to reach this disastrous result” while he added that the aim is to “have a fair trial and a fair decision that will answer who was at fault”.

Analyzing one by one the acts or omissions attributed to each of the defendants, Mr. Maniatis began his description of the day in question, citing all the meteorological data known to the staff. As he said, “the fire turned out to have started at 16:41 in the Dau Pentelis area. The most reliable witness was the video material. The first announcement was made by forest firefighters at 16.46 and was followed by the mobilization of personnel. The danger index for Attica that day was grade 4, i.e. very high. At the time the fire started the wind was 5 Beaufort and reached 8 and 9 Beaufort. Firefighters were unable to contain the fire and it gained momentumhigh rate of heat release and evolved into two fronts.”

The auction continues and is expected to last several hours