Prosecutor to the Infectious Diseases Committee for the Greek «Bergamo»

By Angelos Provolisianou

Whether for reasons political revanchism either because of their incessant chatter, Government officials do not hesitate to admit that citizens are being put at risk so as not to strain relations with the voter base.

In this regard, the flock and the Hierarchy. The committee of experts has been reduced to a lump of plasticine that is molded in the palms of the executive branch. When does it appear to be merely complying with the government’s directives, when does it take a back seat, learning of government decisions from the news, and when does it absorb the government’s upheavals, taking on responsibilities that are not hers. Even after the death toll caused by the government’s negligence, mayors in Central Macedonia tell Documento that they still lack the necessary tools to address the situation. Among them is Mayor of Thessaloniki.

At this juncture, the prosecutor of the Supreme Court—the country’s highest prosecutorial authority—remains deafeningly silent. However, the same cannot be said of the Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, Chief Prosecutor of the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance, who, after listening to experts and the public, decided not to accept a priori the narrative that portrays the thousands of deaths as inevitable losses resulting from the endless variety of epidemic circumstances. At a time when Thessaloniki was recording more and more deaths day by day Mr. Panagiotopoulos intervened on his own initiative.

Following the targeted investigation he ordered, he was summoned to testify as the first witness in the case file that was compiled in mid-November, the Nikolaos Kapravelos, director of the Second Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Papanikolaou Hospital, in order to investigate who is responsible for turning Thessaloniki into a «Bergamo,» clearly placing the committee of experts under the microscope.

As Documento is aware, Mr. Panagiotopoulos’s instruction to the investigator was to «holding infectious disease specialists accountable», highlighting the committee of experts that failed to recommend measures for the city of Thessaloniki at a time when their fellow scientists were sounding the alarm about the impending danger. Of course, if the evidence that emerges from the urgent prosecutor’s investigation (witness statements, documents) points in other directions, the scope of the investigation will be expanded.

The prosecutor's intervention

On November 11, Mr. Kapravelos appeared on a morning show on Ant1. He made it clear that his forces ESY in Thessaloniki had already crossed the line and made pointed remarks about understaffing, concluding that «Lives that could have been saved are being lost and will continue to be lost». These words seem to have been the catalyst for the ex officio intervention by the Thessaloniki Public Prosecutor's Office. A few days later, he was summoned to give a statement. According to him, the prosecutor’s investigation focused on three simple and essential questions. First, what could have been done but wasn't; second, when it should have been done; and third, who is responsible.

According to information obtained by Documento, the investigation is focusing on the role of the scientific committee of experts, taking into account the events that preceded and—above all—those that followed the Feast of the Patron Saint of Thessaloniki on October 26. «The only mitigating factor we can acknowledge regarding the committee is that it issues opinions without sufficient evidence,» well-informed sources note. At the same time, they emphasize the the lack of measures to protect society and the National Health System, the a risky reopening of the tourism sector, based on the unsubstantiated EVA algorithm and inadequate testing at entry points.

The study took into account scientific warnings about the severe second wave, such as the study by AUTH and of Dimitris Sarigiannis, Director of the Technologies and Environmental Engineering Laboratory in the Department of Chemical Engineering, which were confirmed by the rise in cases as early as August.

According to the same sources, The number of deaths outside the ICU will cause a social uproar when the figures are made public, which will happen before long. In any case, the investigation is ongoing, and the case file has already been forwarded to the Athens Public Prosecutor's Office for the Court of First Instance due to its jurisdiction, and its findings are eagerly awaited. Within this framework, however, consideration will be given to both Adonis Georgiadis's statement regarding infectious disease specialists both those that were ignored and those revealed to *Documento* by mayors in Central Macedonia.