By Yannis Anifantis

The door of the office of the President of the Parliament, Konstantinou Tasoulapassed shortly after 11.00 in the morning the former Minister of Transport during the SYRIZA government, Christos Spirtzis, requesting in his letter that a special parliamentary committee be established to check the merits of the charge against him for the train accident in Tempe, based on paragraph 5 of article 86 of the Constitution.

According to the file of the European public prosecutor which has been forwarded to the Parliament, Christos Spirtzis is dismissed for breach of duty for Convention 717, with him, however, considering that the specific category is not sufficiently substantiated. In his statement on the floor of the Parliament, immediately after his meeting with the President of the Parliament, he emphasized that he was paying “his debt to the memory of those who lost their lives and to the fight that the parents are making to investigate any aspect”, expressing the wish of to “the rest of the ministers should follow the same path” (I was Minister of Transport).

However, the request of the former SYRIZA Minister has already been sent to the Scientific Service of the Parliament, with top parliamentary sources stressing that his request “has no precedent and by extension there is no precedent”. The same sources even underline that the reference to article 86 of the Constitution to the end of the process presupposes that it (pre-investigation committee) will have started. In this case, however, the procedure did not start, as the Parliament rejected the relevant request submitted for the investigation of possible criminal responsibilities of the former ministers etc. Spirtzi and Karamanli. In essence, it is pointed out that what Mr. Spirtzis is asking for, presupposes the prior formation of a pre-investigation committee – for contract 717 – requests that the plenary session of the Parliament has already rejected as unfounded.

What does paragraph 5 of article 86 provide:

If for any other reason, which includes the statute of limitations, the procedure concerning the prosecution of a person who is or was a member of the Government or a Deputy Minister is not completed, the Parliament may, at the request of him or his heirs, set up a special committee in which senior judicial officials can also participate in order to control the charge.