“Legal and legitimate” was the reassignment of the Larissa station master, the former deputy managing director of OSE emphasized, Thanasis Kottaras, in the context of his testimony to the commission of inquiry to “investigate the crime of Tempe”.

Mr. Kottaras, current managing director of STASY, when asked by ND MP, L. Tsavdaridis about whether there was an age limit of 48 years, for transfer to the OSE, through “Mobility”, stated that “the “48” , as an age limit, entered on the sheet, filled in by the organization on the platform of the Ministry of the Interior, was not provided for, neither by the legislation nor by any regulatory act, nor by a ministerial decision, nor by the Board of Directors of the OSE, nor even by a decision from an OSE address. “It was an arbitrary age limit, entered by mistake by the employee or employee, who filled out that application on the OSE platform.”

He also pointed out that there are opinions that the OSE has received in 2023 from professors of Law of the Public Law, and who “say that the transfer was completely legal. Also, these opinions say that if the committee had considered the age limit, it would have committed an irregularity, because this age limit was arbitrary” said Mr. Kottaras, who submitted the relevant opinions to the committee.

Mr. Kottaras then stated that “as a member of the committee (for Mobility), at the meeting that took place, there was no discussion about the age limit, and I was not even aware that there was such a limit in the application made by organization on the platform of the Ministry of the Interior for mobility”.

Regarding the positions requested by the OSE from “Mobility”, he said that there were 113, and for which 4 applications were submitted. In particular, “for the inspection of Larissa there were 4 positions and 2 applications were made”. Asked if the allegation that the transfer was true, apart from being illegal and “enslavement” or “swindle”, Mr. Kottaras said: “Nobody bothered me. I don’t think it can be called “Ruffetti”, when there are two candidates for four positions”. However, he noted that even during the Spirtzis ministry, transfers were made through Mobility and even for persons who were over 57 years old, and that they were (also) legal.

Asked about the mistakes made, and whether the accident would have been avoided if the remote control systems had been in place, said that all systems are operated by humans, and, that the more (systems) there are the less the chance of a tragic event. He also referred to specific mistakes by the station master and the train driver, noting that traffic regulations were not followed.

Asked by opposition MPs to report on the process of hiring workers with ID (blocks) during the time he was at the OSE, he said that they were based on recommendations from the competent departments of the OSE, that they mainly concerned young people who did OAED apprenticeships, and that there were committees who evaluated the applications.