FLASH NEWS
Trial begins for Greek train tragedy
2026-03-23 18:05:11 / BOTA
The trial for the worst rail tragedy in Greece, which killed 57 people in 2023 and shocked the entire country, begins in Greece.
36 people face charges and more than 350 witnesses are expected to be heard in the trial that began in the central city of Larissa, near the site where a freight train and a passenger train collided on February 28, 2023.
Witnesses include survivors and relatives of the victims, some of whom are believed to have perished in the fire after surviving the initial collision. Most of the dead were students returning from a carnival weekend. Six Albanians were among the victims.
Before the trial began, Pavlos Aslanidis, who lost his 26-year-old son, Dimitris, and who heads the Association of Victims' Families, told reporters: "This trial is starting with great delay ... what we want is the exemplary punishment of those responsible."
Among those charged are the station manager who was on duty the night of the accident, other railway officials and two former Italian employees of the train's parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.
The two trains had been moving on the same line for more than 10 minutes without any alarms being activated.
The tragedy highlighted the deplorable state of Greek railway safety systems, despite EU grants to modernise them and repeated warnings from unions. The trial is expected to last several years. 33 of the defendants face criminal charges and face sentences of up to life in prison.
None of them are currently in prison, although some have served time in detention.
The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, Laura Kövesi, said the collision could have been avoided if the signaling system had been modernized in time using EU funds.
Train workers are holding a 24-hour strike on Monday, which their union has called "an act of collective memory, protest and democratic vigilance."
Due to the large number of participants, the trial was moved to a lecture hall at the University of Thessaly in Larisa.
The tragedy sparked widespread anger in the country that has never subsided. Tens of thousands of people took part in nationwide protests to mark the third anniversary of the accident last month.
The accused include Vassilios Samaras, the station manager who was arrested the day after the crash, and two other managers who had left their posts before the end of their shift.
They are accused of committing “acts dangerous to the safety of railway traffic … resulting in the death of a large number of people and serious bodily injury to a large number of people,” according to the first indictment by Agence France-Presse.
Managers and employees of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE), the operator of the rail network, are also on trial, as well as two senior transport ministry officials and two Italian executives from Hellenic Train, a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato.
No political officials will be in the dock, which has fueled discontent at a time when the conservative government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been sharply criticized for what is widely seen as a disastrous management of the tragedy.
There are also allegations from the opposition and civil society that officials are protecting those responsible.
Two former government officials are under investigation, but neither has appeared in court. Valuable evidence was also lost when, just days after the crash, a bulldozer leveled the scene./ Taken from The Guardian
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