[InTime News]
The prosecutor in the retrial of 21 defendants implicated for their role in a deadly wildfire that claimed 104 lives in the East Attica seaside town of Mati in 2018 is seeking guilty verdicts for 12 of the state and political officials standing in the dock.
Prosecutor Stamatina Perimeni asked the Three-Member Misdemeanor Appeal Court in Athens to convict, among others, former fire chief Sotiris Terzoudis, his operational commander Vassilis Matthaiopoulos, the then disaster response coordinator Ioannis Fostieris and the head of the Fire Service’s emergency response line, Christos Golfinos.
She said that a string of serious failings and oversights on their part contributed to the magnitude of the tragedy.
In her closing arguments on Thursday, Perimeni also sought guilty verdicts for former Attica regional governor Rena Dourou and Rafina-Pikermi mayor Evangelos Bournos, saying that the former failed to mobilize the civil protection mechanism as she ought to have done and accusing the latter of misinforming residents about the direction of the blaze.
The mayor of neighboring Marathonas at the time of the disaster, Ilias Psinakis, is among those against whom there is no compelling evidence of culpability, according to Perimeni.
The case was sent back to trial after the original verdicts were deemed too lenient; just six of the 21 defendants were ruled guilty and they were let off with a monetary fine.