Today, Tuesday, the Prosecutor of the Three-Member Court of Misdemeanors continues his hearing about the tragedy in Mati Panagiotis Maniatis, who has already pleaded guilty to the then chief and deputy fire chief, the then commander of the Joint Operations Coordination Center and the officer who was put in charge of the fire in the critical hours just before the fire swept away lives and property. At the same time, Mr. Maniatis requested exemption for three senior officers of the Corps.

Today, Mr. Maniatis is expected to continue and complete his assessment of the remaining five accused from the Fire Department and then take a stand for the nine accused, one of whom is from ELAS, the then head of the Civil Protection Secretariat, six elected officials Municipality and the accused as being responsible for the fire.

Examining the way each defendant acted in conjunction with the network of provisions that define the duties and responsibilities they carry within the Fire Department, as they were in force during the disputed period, the Prosecutor at the previous meeting requested the four guilty pleas for specific acts, as formulated in the indictment, but also exonerations for other acts attributed to the then leaders of the Fire Department. With the same criteria, he requested the dismissal of the three officers.

What has the Prosecutor suggested about persons and actions

Mr. Maniatis attributed responsibilities:

  • To the then leader of PS Sotiris Terzoudis and to the then Commander of ESKE Ioannis Fostieris for diverting an aircraft that was heading to the fire at Daou, so that it could go to Corinth to deal with a fire in Sousaki near the refineries. According to Mr. Maniatis, at the time the diversion took place, the fire in Corinth did not threaten the refineries. In addition, as the Prosecutor said, the ground commander of the Fire in Sousaki had not requested reinforcements. The decision of Mr. Fostieris, according to the Prosecutor, was the product of pressure due to phone calls from the owner of the refineries and contributed to the spread of the fire in Penteli, which then consumed Mati. The Fostieri order, as the Prosecutor said, was under the approval of Mr. Terzoudis
  • To Mr. Fostieris for failing to request timely assistance from two Army Air Force Chinooks that were available at Elefsina to assist. “It was a mistake and a misdemeanor,” said the public prosecutor for Mr. Fostieris
  • To the then Deputy Chief of the Fire Department, Vassilis Matthaiopoulos, for not mobilizing the Fire Department boats, after the fire had passed through Mati, to collect and rescue citizens found at sea. The omission of Mr. Matthaiopoulos, who is by law responsible for the mobilization of the floats, “contributed to the drowning death of nine people and to the prolonged stay in the water of many others,” said Mr. Maniatis
  • To the then head of Fire, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, for not proposing, as the only competent person, for an organized removal of citizens, at a time that, as the Prosecutor said, even if it was not accepted, would immediately mobilize the process of informing the residents of Matiou “with any convenient means, even door-to-door’ to get out of the path of the destructive fire.

With his proposal, Mr. Maniatis decided that the Fire Department staff, chief, deputy chief and Commander of ESKE, they took care of the aerial surveillance of the day in question and acted properly on the issue of repositioning of aircraft and thus sought their discharge.

He also judged that the then Commander of 199 Christos Golfinos and the then director of the Center for Civil Protection Operations Philippos Pandeleakos do not bear the responsibilities attributed to them by the accusation, either for the improper disposal of the ground media by the former, or for the issues of removal and information the citizens. For the same acts, he requested the discharge of Terzoudis, Fostieris and Matthaiopoulos. He also asked for the dismissal of the then Commander of the Police Department of Nea Makris Damianos Papadopoulos, who was at the scene of the fire initially as the head of the Fire Department but then left.

The persons for whom the Prosecutor will be appointed

Following the order of the accused as included in the list of the indictment, the Prosecutor is expected that today he will buy for the actions attributed to the officials, on the day in question, of the Fire Department:

Charalambo Hioni Commander of Eastern Attica Fire Services, Christos Lambris aerial coordinator of the FLOGA 1 firefighting helicopter and aerial commander Christos Drosopoulos, Giorgos Portozoudis Commander of the Air Force and Stefanos Kolokouris Commander of EMAK.

Also for the then ELAS officer Commander of the Air Police, Charalambos Syrogiannis.

Subsequently, he will be assigned to the then head of the General Secretariat of Civil Protection, Ioannis Kalpakis, while he will then deal with the “Self-Government” chapter, where he will evaluate actions and omissions charged by the case file against the then Regional Governor of Attica, Rena Douro, the Mayor of Marathon, Ilias Psinakis, and the Deputy Mayor Vaio Thanasias, to the Mayor of Rafina-Pikermio, Evangelos Bournos, and to the Deputy Mayor, Antonios Palpatzis, and to the Mayor of Penteli, Dimitrios – Stergios Kapsalis. Last in the recommendation of the public prosecutor will be the resident of Dau Pentelis Konstantinos Angelopoulos who is attributed to the start of the deadly fire.

The purchase may not be completed today as the court may decide to adjourn earlier due to traffic regulations for the mobilization of farmers.