The hearing of the district attorney in the trial of the 21 defendants has been completed for the fire in Mati which tragically resulted in the loss of 104 lives.

Prosecutor Panagiotis Maniatis has requested the guilt of a total of nine defendants, of which five are from the Fire Department, three are elected officials and the last one is the resident of Dau Pentelis who is attributed to the start of the deadly fire. At the prosecutor’s discretion, the remaining 12 defendants must be acquitted.

In the last part of his proposal, Mr. Maniatis asked the court to declare guilty three municipals, including the then mayor of Rafina-Pikermio, Evangelos Bournous, to whom he reserved a particularly harsh position.

At the same time, he requested the dismissal of the then mayors of Marathon Ilias Psinakis and Pentelis Dimitriou-Stergiou Kapsalis.

Prosecutor Panagiotis Maniatis told the court regarding Mr. Burnous that he provided incorrect information to the citizens through his statements in the Media. In a stern tone, the public prosecutor said about Mr. Burnous that the incorrect information of Mr. Burnous, which primarily concerned residents of the areas of Neo Voutza and Matiou, resulted in them becoming complacent, not reacting, “after listening to Mr. Burnous to appear on TV channels and say that the fire does not threaten residential areas, while it had already reached or crossed Marathon Avenue”.

“It turned out that the mayor of Rafina made television interventions, where he provided information on the progress of the fire. The first time, when the fire was in Lyrio, the second time, for the direction of fire towards Neo Voutza. It goes without saying that both public positions do not correspond to reality. Especially in his second placement in a television station, the fire has already entered Neo Voutza and was burning houses. The mayor of Rafina provided information that was far from reality. Those who heard the mayor give these assurances were reassured that there would be no need to evacuate,” said Mr. Maniatis about the mayor of Rafina-Pikermiou, speaking of an irresponsible attitude towards the citizens he represented, who, as he pointed out, alienated and created confusion for them , instead of helping.

“The attitude, and better yet, the zeal he displayed is surprising to me, since as it turned out he had no information from the leaders in the field of fire. The question is where did he get this information from? The information he transmitted was not based on any official source of information. At critical times, greater responsibility is needed in persons holding public offices when they inform the public about ongoing phenomena. He misinformed the public, and aggravated the criminal effect” pointed out the public prosecutor in a particularly strict tone.

At the same time, Mr. Maniatis requested the guilt of the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Marathon, Vaios Thanasias, as well as the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Rafina-Pikermio, Antonios Palpatzis, for the part of the charges concerning the misdemeanor cleaning of private plots.

Regarding Konstantinos Angelopoulos, who is accused of setting the fire that spread the havoc, the prosecutor said: “I am of the opinion that there is all the evidence and evidence that the accused set the fire by overestimating his strength and ignoring the warnings and the danger. He humanly denies his guilt and hesitates to take responsibility for his actions. But he set the litmus test of calamity.”

According to the prosecution’s proposal, the following should be found guilty of manslaughter by serial negligence and by omission as well as serial bodily harm:

  • Sotiris Terzoudis then chief of the Fire Department
  • Vassilis Matthaiopoulos then deputy leader
  • Ioannis Fostieris then head of ESKE
  • Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, then Commander of the Athens Fire Services
  • Charalambos Chionis then Commander of Eastern Attica Fire Services
  • Vaios Thanasias then deputy mayor of Marathon Municipality
  • Evangelos Bournous, then Mayor of Rafina-Pikermio
  • Antonis Palpatzis
  • Antonios Angelopoulos also pleaded guilty to negligent arson.

As he stated, all of them showed convergent negligence and contributed to the tragic outcome.

Respectively, asked for the exemption of the then executives of the Fire Department, Christos Golfinos, Filippos Pandeleakos, Damianos Papadopoulos, Christos Lampris, Christos Drosopoulos, Georgios Portozoudis and Stefanos Kololouris. Also, the then officer in the Aerial Media of EL.AS. Charalambou Syrogiannis, the then head of Civil Protection Ioannis Kapakis, the then regional governor of Attica Renas Douros and the then mayors of Marathon Ilias Psinakis and Pentelis Dimitriou-Stergiou Kapsalis.

The trial will continue on Thursday, when it is expected that the buying of lawyers will begin.