On Sunday, tens of thousands of Greeks across the country took to the streets to protest against the government’s delay in concluding who was responsible for the Tempi railway disaster that resulted in the deaths of 57 people.
The mass demonstration in Athens’ Syntagma Square, along with rallies across Greek cities and islands, and in major cities worldwide, was held in response to the call of the victims’ relatives of the Tempi railway tragedy. For two years, the Association of Relatives of the Victims has demanded justice while accusing the government of attempting to cover up the incident.
People of all ages carried banners and placards with slogans such as “Justice”, “I have no oxygen”, “We were all on the train”, “The Tempi crime will not be forgotten”, “Νο crime without punishment,” and so on.
The thousands who protested are confident that the railway disaster was not an accident but a crime. They accuse Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, former Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Kostas Karamanlis, and other officials of a cover-up following the event.
Victims’ family members assert that the Tempi railway disaster is not an accident, but a crime committed by the government. They claim that the government acted hastily to cover it up and tampered with evidence, thereby stalling the investigation and failing to address the families’ inquiries.
Association of Relatives of the Victims poses 10 questions
Maria Karystianou, mother of a Tempi railway disaster victim and president of the Association of Relatives of the Victims posed 10 open questions to the Greek prime minister and competent authorities:
“1. After investigating all the acts and omissions deemed criminal following the railway accident, including actions by state bodies, agency executives, and justice officials—such as concealing the site with cement, altering audio documents, improperly executing autopsies, providing misleading findings by non-reputable scientists attributing the accident to silicone oils, and other delays—is there a belief in the Rule of Law in Greece?
2. The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against our country due to long-standing deficiencies in railway safety. Do you believe that your government will be able to comply with EU safety regulations?
3. Those who obstructed the investigation into the Tempi railway disaster case, instead of being removed from their positions, are being rewarded with promotions while criminal charges are pending against them. We specifically mention:
– The case of Mr. Tasoulas, who, in his capacity as Speaker of the House, kept the Tempi case files in his drawers instead of promptly introducing them to the Parliament, as he is obliged to do, and who was ultimately nominated by you for the office of President of the Hellenic Republic.
– Furthermore, Mr. Agapios Charakopoulos, the brother of an MP from your party, was promoted despite pending criminal proceedings against him for breach of duty related to the omission in the safekeeping of wagons and findings in the Tempi accident.
How do you respond, Mr. Prime Minister, to these allegations?
4. Why is Panagiotis Terezakis, the CEO of OSE (Hellenic Railways Organization) — a company fully controlled by its sole shareholder, the Greek State — allowed to remain in his position despite being sued for giving false testimony in Parliament, failing to deliver, and altering digital audio and video files related to the loading and departure of a commercial train? Why does he remain in his position while he is under investigation for a series of criminal acts?
5. Your government minister, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, asserts that everything will be clear after the court decision. However, evidence that has come to light reveals both legal and ethical deviations since:
– The Larissa Investigating Officer has not even ordered an investigation into the freight train’s illegal chemical cargo to date.
– With the dumping of the site, crucial evidence was destroyed and the bones of our children were thrown to the dogs.
– The autopsy was carried out in violation of the law and the Forensic Medicine Protocols.
– The 29-day delay in collecting samples for research from the accident scene resulted in the alteration and disappearance of evidence.
– The reports from the General State Chemistry Laboratory consistently, yet without substantiation, attributed the cause of the Tempi railway disaster to silicone oils. This attribution was eventually proven false, leading to a disorientation of the investigations.
– The audio evidence submitted to the case file is also altered.
After the moral and legal deviations, how can you continue to claim that Justice will be served when it appears that its work is constantly being obstructed?
6. In his statements yesterday, the Minister of Justice stated, regarding the illegal alteration of the accident site and the illegal “filling” with cement, for which criminal proceedings have been initiated, that “the dirt went a little too far”. Do you share this view? How do you perceive the Minister’s statement?
7. Who ordered the Forensic Medical Examiners to leave Athens on the morning of the accident and for your representatives to go to Larissa?
8. In the tampering with the Tempi accident site, which is also tampering with the truth, crucial evidence was destroyed.
Who suggested and who gave the order for this criminal intervention?
Who carried it out?
9. Where do you get your absolute certainty from, with which you boldly declared to the Greek people as early as March 2023, that is, a few days after the Tempi accident (crime), that there was no illegal cargo on the freight train?
10. From the leaks to all the pro-government media, today’s upcoming interview will be based on the National Technical University of Athens conclusion. How do you, the Prime Minister, know in advance the findings of the NTUA, when it has not been delivered to the Appellate Investigator yet, and by extension to the relatives who persistently request it?”
Greek PM resorts to damage control
The mass demonstration following the Tempi railway disaster and the public outcry over the government’s handling of the fatal accident have alarmed Mitsotakis and his ministers. The persistent accusations of “murder” have concerned the government. The Prime Minister convened two extraordinary cabinet meetings after Sunday’s rally to discuss the ruling party’s challenging situation.
In a further attempt to mitigate the damage the rally caused to his administration and his image, Mitsotakis appeared on television on Wednesday evening. In this interview, he endeavored to distance himself from the defendant’s position, suggesting that the findings and various investigative teams had misled him.
He stated that he wishes to uncover the truth about the tragedy and feels more pain than anyone else, except, of course, for the victims’ relatives. Whether he succeeded in reducing the political repercussions of the Tempi railway disaster and dispelling the public’s impression that “there is an attempt to cover it up” remains uncertain.
Mitsotakis attempted to respond to the cover-up accusations by saying that the main responsibility for the continuous delays falls on Hellenic Train, the Police, agency officials, and the judiciary.
Initially, he denied the presence of dangerous flammable materials on the cargo train that caused the explosion and resulted in numerous fatalities. However, he later stated that he had only conveyed the statements of the fire department and Hellenic Train and that he no longer ruled out the possibility that the commercial train might have carried hazardous materials.
Regarding the missing video material from the commercial train docking station, the Prime Minister stated that this matter falls under police jurisdiction and he should not comment publicly on police operations.
As for covering with cement the crash site before the forensic investigation was completed, the prime minister shifted the responsibility to the officials by saying that, “some actions were taken in the field, they were done with good intentions, so that we could locate the bodies at that moment. If something went wrong, an operational error, that will, again, be judged by the authorities. And if the prosecutor, who has already dealt with the issue, considers that he should press charges, he will press them.”
When questioned about the parliamentary Investigative Committee that concluded its investigation without summoning essential witnesses, Mitsotakis shifted the responsibility to the committee, stating, “It was not the best moment of the Parliament.”
Throughout the interview, Mitsotakis repeated that he is a parent himself and that it is an insult to attribute to him that he would think of a cover-up.
When asked if he was considering resigning, following the example of the Prime Minister of Serbia, Milos Vucevic, who resigned after mass protests following the collapse of a railway station concrete canopy that killed 15 people, Mitsotakis replied: “No, I do not believe that I should have submitted my resignation. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation resigned. I took on the responsibilities that fell on me. I never hid. The Greek people will judge me overall at the end of the four years, evaluating me overall.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis also criticized the opposition, accusing them of trying to exploit the Tempi railway disaster victims’ relatives’ pain to cause political damage to the government—something that, he stated, ND did not do with the equivalent Mati deadly fires.
After the interview, the opposition heavily criticized the prime minister for refusing to accept any responsibility for himself and his cabinet. The success of Sunday’s rally and the rising anger over the investigation’s continuing delay indicates that there will be more demonstrations like that until justice is finally served.
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