The 23 defendants, non-political persons, which are criminally controlled with a series of felony charges for non-execution of contract 717 for critical works in the railway network, among which also that of signaling – remote control, calls for February 28 the Greek European Investigator Christina Salappa.

The 23 defendants, including 18 public officials, are called by Ms. Salappa who is handling the case after the criminal prosecution by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)to be held accountable for a series of very serious criminal acts that per case involve fraud, infidelity, false certification, with the purpose of obtaining an illegal benefit, moral complicity in fraud and false certifications.

The calls of the European Investigator to the 23 defendants are for the day that completes one year since the fatal collision of the two trains in Tempe, a case being investigated by the Appellant – Investigator of Larissa Sotiris Bakaimis, who however has received a copy of the case file handled by Ms. Salappa as she has expanded the circle of defendants for the accident with persons included in the “717” case.

All the defendants are expected to ask for a deadline to prepare their defense in the major case they are charged with following the prosecution by the European Public Prosecutor’s Officewhich has sent to the Parliament the case file on the unexecuted projects in order to judge whether the possible responsibilities of the former ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Christos Spirtzis will be sought.

Mrs. Salappa calls before her in an apology:

* 14 ERGOSE employees to whom fraud related to the grants credited for the execution of the project is attributed. Two of them are also charged with the charge of making a false statement with the purpose of obtaining an unfair advantage for another.

* 4 Executives of the Hellenic Administrative Authority of the Transport Infrastructure Operational Program, Environment and Sustainable Development (EYD/EP-YMEPERAA) to whom infidelity of funds is attributed;

* 5 Private individuals, legal representatives and executives of the Contractor Consortium who are accused as moral perpetrators in the actions of public servants, that is, for moral complicity in fraud related to the grants and moral complicity in false certification with the purpose of providing an unfair advantage to another.

According to a statement issued by the EPPO, the charges which the mandated Prosecutors of the European Public Prosecutor’s office in Athens reported, concern the contract between OSE’s subsidiary, ERGOSE and the consortium of two companies as the Contractor of the project “for the restoration of the Signaling-Remote Control System of the Athens-Thessaloniki-Promahonas railway section, which was signed in 2014, with a time horizon of completion in 2016 – known as “Contract 717”. In 2019, a Supplementary Agreement was signed regarding the same projectwhich modified the original physical object of Convention 717. The Supplementary Convention provided for the construction of an entirely new Signaling system with new telemetry units to enable communication and data transmission between railway stations and from railway stations in the control centers”.

As pointed out by the EPPO, which had launched an investigation into the contracts concerning the rail network since November 2018, the “717” and the supplementary agreement “co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund, in the framework of the “Signaling-Remote Control Modernization and installation of the European Train Control System (ETCS)” program, with the contribution of the E.E. to amount to 85%”.

The European prosecutors emphasize that from the beginning “the two companies that made up the Consortium Contractor, immediately after the signing of the 717 Contract, arbitrarily divided the work between them. One of the companies undertook to execute the northern part of the project, while the second company undertook to execute the project on the longest section of the Athens-Thessaloniki railway route up to Platys, including the section near Tempi, where the fatal train collision on February 28, 2023″ and they add that the second company of the consortium, in violation of the terms of the Agreement, “had entrusted the preparation of the technical studies regarding the signaling systems of the Athens-Platy railway section to a third company, which did not have the required special know-how”.

According to the data of the prosecutor’s investigation a total of seven illegal extensions were given to the original contract according to the decisions of the ERGOSE Board of Directors.

As regards the defendants from the Administrative Authority, according to the case file “despite the fact that the information submitted by ERGOSE employees was clearly incorrect and incomplete, the civil servants of the Administrative Authority approved the granting of the corresponding aids, causing damage to the financial interests of the EU. and the Greek State in the amount of more than 15.6 million euros”.

For part of the case of 717, at the same time, a preliminary examination is carried out by a Prosecutor of the first instance as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office sent a copy of the case file to the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office judging that there are elements that do not fall within its competence but must be evaluated for possible breach of duty on the part of the Inspectors – Auditors of the Hellenic National Transparency Authority (NAT) of Greece, in which assigned by the national Prosecution Authorities, conducting an audit regarding the execution of Convention 717. These Inspectors are being audited as contradictions appear to arise between findings leading to financial loss from the delay in the implementation of the contract and their conclusions in which they do not result in a determination of actual or hypothetical loss.