Innocent the two responsible for it were judged nursing home in Thessaloniki, where in August 2020 there was a flurry of Covid-19 cases, resulting in the loss of their lives 28 elderly people from complications associated with the coronavirus.

After a multi-day evidentiary process and the examination of dozens of witnesses, the Mixed Jury Court of Thessaloniki, by a majority (6-1), adopted the proposal of the prosecutor and acquitted the defendants of the act of violating measures to prevent diseases that resulted in death large number of people.

They sat on the bench of the Criminal Court two brothers –the first as responsible for scientific matters and the second as responsible for administrative matters. In their statements, both during the interrogation stage and before the court, they refused the charge against them.

The case began to be investigated with a prosecutor’s order by the National Transparency Authority, which for a year and a half studied the operating conditions of the particular care facility for the elderly.

The referral order was based on the conclusions of the Authority’s inspectors and referred to a series of violations of the prevention measures against the spread of the coronavirus, such as excessive numbers of patients, failure to observe the distances in the rooms for the elderly and in common areas, failure to carry out preventive tests for the molecular detection of the virus for the early detection of cases, non-separation of waste, etc.

In her proposal, which was accepted by the court, the district attorney stated that an effort was made by the defendants to take every appropriate measure to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus, stressing that they were taking more effective measures than those foreseen. Analyzing the indictment and commenting one by one on the five prevention measures that the indictment alleged they violated, she stated that for three of these measures there was no explicit obligation to observe them during the disputed period with corresponding decisions of the competent health authorities. Regarding the other two measures, he said that one was implemented and the other was partially observed, but without this being responsible for the spread of the virus.