While Greek police have yet to capture any suspects in what is believed to be an anarchist-led firebombing of a downtown Athens branch of the Marfin Bank on May 5, 2010 during austerity protests, leaving three people – including an expectant mother – dead, three of the bank’s executives have been found guilty of manslaughter.
The CEO of Marfin Bank, the lender’s head of security and the manager of the Stadiou Street branch had been charged with negligence and causing bodily harm in connection with the aftermath of the attack on a day when most other businesses in the area shut down. It was the most violent of three years of protests, strikes and riots against pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions.
The Athens misdemeanors court handed maximum jail sentences of 10 years to CEO Constantinos Vasilakopoulos and security chief Emmanouil Pelonakis. The branch manager Anna Vakalopoulou was given 5 years and 1 month in jail. Her deputy, Anastasia Koukou was cleared of all charges.
During the trial of the bank staff, the court heard that in spite of previous attacks and warnings regarding the branch, executives had failed to take the requisite safety measures.
Employees complained that because of a strike, their branch was the only one open in central Athens during the protest and that they had never been given safety guidelines. Andreas Vgenopoulos, Chairman of the Marfin Investment Group which owned the bank was not charged despite widespread criticism that he had disregarded the safety of his employees.
Angeliki Papathanasopoulou, aged 32 and four months pregnant at the time, Paraskevi Zoulia, aged 34, and Epameinondas Tsakalis, 36, died of suffocation after the bank they worked in was firebombed and they fled to a top floor only to be overcome by smoke.
“The bank should have been secured. The front windows had been repeatedly smashed, yet they were never replaced with shatter-proof glass,” Zacharias Papathanasopoulos, Angeliki’s father, told the court on the opening day of the trial.
“I believe that what happened is because of the criminal indifference of the bank’s officials,” Papathanasopoulos added. “I demand moral compensation.”
The three executives found guilty have the right to appeal their sentences. The judge said he would be forwarding the case file to prosecutors for further investigation.
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