(Athens) Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday asked in a letter addressed to the prosecutor of the Supreme Court to give “priority” to the investigations relating to the train disaster in Greece and to assign them to the services “of instruction at the highest level “.
He said it was a separate investigation from that started by government-appointed “experts” after the accident that killed 57 people on February 28 in Tempe in Thessaly, central Greece.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked Supreme Court Prosecution Isidoros Doyakos, “for an immediate and thorough clarification of all criminal matters related to the tragic Tempe train crash.”
“I ask you to give priority to these cases and assign them, if you deem it appropriate, to the highest possible level of investigation,” said Kyriakos Mitsokais in this letter.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked the Supreme Court prosecution to assess the possible criminal nature of “systemic errors in the railway sector, including any delay in completing the required technological upgrade of the relevant infrastructure”.
On Friday, under orders from the Prime Minister, a special committee of experts was set up to “investigate and bring to light the systemic problems and dysfunctions” that led to the rail tragedy.
The accident in Tempé was mainly attributed by the authorities to “human error”.
On Sunday, in Larissa, the city closest to the scene of this accident, the station master was charged and remanded in custody for having made a fatal error in “the death of a large number of people”, a crime punishable a sentence ranging from 10 years in prison to life, according to the Greek penal code.
More than 12,000 protesters shouted their anger in Athens on Sunday at “the chronic failures” of Greece’s rail network, accusing governments in recent years of doing nothing to improve the network.