The Athens prosecutor’s office filed on Tuesday four misdemeanor charges against nine individuals for the deadly flash flood in Mandra, western Attica, in November 2017, which claimed the lives of 25 people. Attica Governor Rena Dourou was among the officials charged.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the case file concerning several officials’ actions during the devastating flood is being sent to an investigating magistrate as a matter of high priority.
Athens Prosecutor of the First Instance, Sotiria Papageorgakopoulou, brought charges for flood due to negligence; homicide due to negligence committed repeatedly, by omission; bodily harm due to negligence by omission; and breach of duty by omission.
The prosecutor charges that several regional officials were responsible for the Mandra catastrophe. Among them are Attica Governor Rena Dourou and Attica Vice Governor Yiannis Vassiliou; as well as the mayors of Mandra Ioanna Kriekouki, Elefsina Giorgos Tsoukalas, and Megara Grigoris Stamboulos.
Two forestry chiefs from the Egaleo and Megara districts and other officials at the forestry departments of Egaleo and Megara are also being charged for their actions before or during the flood.
The prosecutor considered the suits filed by individual citizens, agencies and associations against a total of twenty-five people, including the nine defendants.
The prosecutor’s office blamed the nine defendants for failing to take adequate measures to prevent the flood, including lack of flood protection measures, lack of mountain drainage works and urban planning violations.
The lack of supervision and conservation of water streams and lack of sufficient delineation of streams was also cited as contributing factors to the devastating flood and the resultant loss of life.
The sixty-six-page prosecutor’s report includes the conclusions of the findings of the auditing bodies which carried out on-site evaluations and specialized studies.
Source: AMNA
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