Tension was caused by the second out-of-court hearing of the Association of Relatives of Tempo Victims against the former regional governor of Thessaly, Mr. Costas Agorastos, which was submitted to today’s (Tuesday) Regional Council on behalf of the Association’s representatives in order to request all possible action for answers to the case.

To begin with, the parent of the passenger of the fatal train and lawyer Giorgos Iliopoulos took the floor. “A subpoena was sent to which Mr. Agorastos responded in part. He is completely lying, which is why he was prosecuted for dereliction of duty. How do you tolerate a person who is involved, at least I am surprised” he noted, making the regional councilor Ms. Tania Dokou from the faction “Alliance for Citizens” to intervene asking the president Ms. Chryssa Tsaganou to protect the member of the Regional Council. “He has the presumption of innocence and such characterizations are not allowed,” he said characteristically.

Continuing, Mr. Iliopoulos added “the local government cannot tolerate its involvement. The Directorate of Technical Works of Thessaly and the Directorate of Civil Protection of Larissa are also involved in justifying the expenses. In these decisions, they refer to supposedly necessary openings, you describe, the release of people, but in no case do they refer to funds and related decisions for the transportation of debris anywhere. Because a project involving the management of dangerous chemical substances as commodities was implemented and the entire investigation concerns the health of people who were injured, it is necessary to inform.

Why was this managed? How can we find out what kind of chemicals leaked into the space?

This is what democracy requires. Since my son was also in the third carriage, I don’t allow any master or dummy to play with his life and health. Make every effort to get this out of court answered.

Because I believe in both honesty and propriety, I anxiously appeal to you to reveal the truth.”

For his part, the victim’s husband and member of the Association Mr. Christos Konstantinidis pointed out that “since August we have filed the first extrajudicial statement against Mr. Agorastos. After 10 days we got his answer that he invoked the Coordinating Body of Civil Protection and the presence of a higher echelon and he was an accomplice in the case of the bottling.

On September 11th, we filed a second out-of-court motion and still got no response. While extrajudicial service had been made, it was nowhere to be found. So we put it to the District Council to see exactly what happened.

We are waiting for answers to be given, i.e. from whom Mr. Agorastos took orders, why the specific collision took place and without the presence of judicial authorities, where the wagons were taken, and also many answers regarding the accident”.

“It’s painful to be blamed. Take action to move forward with data. Anyone’s child or parent could be inside the train,” said the survivor of the second passenger carriage, Mrs. Evdokia Tsagli.

“As a faction we sympathize and share the pain. In any case, we too seek the truth. Justice has been done,” said Ms. Dokou, with Mr. Agorastos expressing his deep respect and regret and clarifying that “what we want is for the truth to shine. The Region of Thessaly had a supporting role.”

Finally, the president of the Regional Council, Mrs. Chryssa Tsaganou, referred to the “undivided support of everyone” to the relatives of the victims of the tragedy, saying however that “we are incompetent as an institution”.

See photos:

Photo/video: Kostas Tsiaras – onlarissa.gr