By Ioanna Mandrou

A suspended prison sentence of 2 years and six months was imposed on the former chief of the Fire Brigade Vassilis Matthaiopoulos for the accusations of attempted illegal violence and dereliction of duty, following the complaints of the expert, Dimitris Liotsios, about the pressures and threats he received regarding the case of the fatal fire in Mati. As soon as the sentence was announced, relatives of the victims applauded the composition of the Court.

Vassilis Matthaiopoulos who will be tried again at the appeals court for the tragedy in Mati (he was then deputy chief of the Fire Department and later became chief) did not appear at the trial. With his statement, which was presented by his lawyer, Diamantis Basaras, the former fire chief stated, among other things: “I wish to state that I accept the accusation of attempted unlawful violence and express my sincere apology for the above act to D. Liotsio and before the court”.

The defendant in the same statement stated that for legal reasons he does not accept the charge of breach of duty.

In the same statement, Mr. Matthaiopoulos emphasized that he would not want his absence from the court to be perceived as disrespect.

“Look at my child who was burned,” said the victim’s mother, reacting, while the two sides developed their legal arguments for Mathaiopoulos’ statement, while the trial began with the testimony of the expert Dimitrios Liotsos who, among other things, argued that after the first questions he asked, when an expert was appointed, he met some reactions, that is, he did not have the right based on his appointment to ask such questions.

“The reactions, said the witness, were from Matthaiopoulos. When we had the chance to meet, he would say to me “what are you asking for, you will get into trouble, be careful not to get hurt, “if I mess with the forest office they will open the door for me…” and other things” emphasized the expert in the case.

As the witness then pointed out during the meeting he had in July 2018 with Vassilis Matthaiopoulos of requested – among other things – not to draw up the expert opinion according to real facts, to attribute what happened to the anarchic construction and to mention that there was plenty of time for the early evacuation of the citizens.

The witness said that he immediately addressed the prosecutor who had taken over the case at the time and emphasized that on the initiative of the then head of the Athens First Instance Prosecutor’s Office, Ilias Zagoraiou, he was given another appointment and the case proceeded.

However, according to what Mr. Liotsios testified, the pressures intensified. “I continued my research. When I got a second appointment, the reaction process became more intense. Whenever I went, either with gestures or with words: “be careful what you write, you will get hurt, we will send you to Samos or Kos and at the first fire it will not raise my head, that what happened in the fire of Mani and Kythira and that that’s how games are made”
there was constant psychological pressure.”

In fact, answering a relevant question from the president, the witness said that they were not “only bowled over” but “directly threatened.”

Regarding the day of his meeting with Vassilis Matthaiopoulos, the witness described that one day before on September 20, 2018, he called him and invited him to his office. “One day, on the 20th of the month, before the recording, he calls me on the phone because he found out that the day has come for me to deliver and calls me to his office. We were left alone and he started threatening me”

The witness added that he then contacted the head of the Prosecutor’s Office at the time, Ilias Zagoraios, and he instructed him on how to draw up the expert report so that everything would be legal.

However, as Dimitris Liotsios underlined afterwards, “In March, before the prosecutor’s order, the threats of Matthaiopoulos began to be implemented, I suffered sabotage on my machine. The dealership drew up a report and said that human factor was the reason the nut came loose. My lawyer told me to go out and report it publicly to stop the process. After a few months the machine was stolen.”

The witness described how time passed and then the general secretary of Public Administration, Maria Papaspyrou, publicly stated what Matthaiopoulos said, that is, he had no right to judge his superiors.

“After all this, the investigator Athanasios Marneris calls me, where he did a good investigation for two years and thanks to him this case got to where it is. It wouldn’t be enough. All the intervention that was done was just to bury the case,” the witness emphasized.

Prosecutor: Did he ask you to opt-out from an expert witness as well?

Witness: Yes.

Chairman: Did he have a personal interest?

Witness: Don’t go accused of the Eye as he did!

During the hearing, two more witnesses testified, fire officers to whom the expert had confided what happened to him, as well as the journalist who disclosed the conversation between the victim and the accused.