Outside the courtroom in the trial for the flood in Mandra, in 2017, which cost the lives of 25 people, is the then Regional Governor Rena Dourou and five others who were acquitted in the first instance, who were called to be tried in the appellate court after a prosecutorial appeal.

The Three-member Misdemeanor Appeals Court accepted the objection submitted by the six for whom the Prosecutor’s Office appealed against their acquittal and thus the trial will continue with eight defendants in the dock.

Statement by Rena Douros on her acquittal by the Court of Appeal in the Mandra case

“Today, with a unanimous decision, the Tripartite Court of Appeal of Athens rejected the appeal brought by the Prosecutor against the acquittal decision in the case of Mandra, which was issued after a hearing of two years. In this way, my acquittal is also confirmed in the second degree.

The political establishment and its representatives could never accept that the citizens of Attica elected in 2014 a left-wing regional governor in the largest Region of our homeland. A huge effort was made to use the criminal prosecutions to tarnish the great work done by the Life Force in the administration of the Attica Region. Because that way it was easier for them to appear themselves as the initiators of our own flagship projects. 500 million euros of critical flood infrastructure projects in the context of holistic planning, which included, among many others, the flood protection project in Mandra and its road network. Projects such as the regeneration of Falirikos bay and hundreds of others in every corner of Attica with the sole concern of our Administration being the protection of life and property of citizens.

I was prosecuted like no other elected member of the Local Government, with prosecutions none of which related to financial irregularities, nor directly to me as a person, but all of them had to do with the alleged negligence of the regional bodies.

I believe that one way to protect the prestige and morality of our political system is for us politicians to be judged for our actions by natural judges. In this way the innocent will be rendered without shadows in the society. According to this reasoning, I went through all the stages of the criminal procedure, in disgust, in silence but also with pain, always respecting the rules of the rule of law.

Today I do not celebrate – the pain of the loss of human life never fades.

Today I am not asking for an apology from all those political opponents who pointed the finger at me as guilty.

I do not ask that some journalists who wrote pamphlets against me be corrected, I do not consider this decision in general as a personal vindication.

Because I continue to believe that justice may require patience and determination, but in the end the truth wins.”