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The socialist PASOK party requested on Tuesday the establishment of a special parliamentary committee to investigate Deputy Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Christos Triantopoulos over his handling of the Tempe rail disaster site.<\/p>\n
When the disaster \u2013 a head-on crash between a passenger and a freight train that killed 57 people \u2013 occurred, on February 28, 2023, Triantopoulos was a deputy minister to the prime minister, in charge of state aid and recovery from natural disasters. He currently holds the exact same portfolio, but under the climate crisis and civil protection minister.<\/p>\n
PASOK wants the committee to look into Triantopoulos\u2019 potential criminal liability. The demand arises from a report by an appeals court prosecutor that was submitted to Parliament last autumn. The report contains the deposition of a police officer which places Triantopoulos at the site of the disaster when the decision was taken to clear the site and fill it with cement.<\/p>\n
The official version was that the cement was laid in order to facilitate the work of excavators going through the tangled wreck of the two trains. But relatives of victims say that it may have impeded the search for the causes of the fire that followed the explosion and may, in fact, have been a blatant attempt to conceal evidence. They also believe that the freight train had been illegally carrying flammable materials.<\/p>\n
Whatever the truth on this, the appeals prosecutor decided to separate this aspect of the case from the rest because tampering with evidence is considered a misdemeanor and not a felony, like the other charges, and, therefore, the statute of limitations applies earlier.<\/p>\n
The parliament speaker at the time of the report\u2019s submission, Konstantinos Tasoulas, treated the report on the tampering as a supplement to the overall report and did not communicate its submission to the plenary. \u201cIt is inconceivable that a report by a senior judge is considered a supplement,\u201d PASOK charges in its request, attacking Tasoulas for a \u201cblatantly unconstitutional move\u201d and, by extension, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who, a few months later, proposed Tasoulas for the post of president of the republic.<\/p>\n
Tasoulas\u2019 election to the post in a vote on February 12 is considered a formality, given the ruling conservatives\u2019 majority in Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n