The trial for the deadly fire at Mati begins

Shortly before 5 p.m. on 23 July 2018, an elderly man set a fire to burn dry grass in his field, in the area of Daou Penteli, out of his control. The two hours that followed, as strong winds were blowing in the area, was enough for the fire to descend from the slopes of the Pendeli Mountains, burn everything in its path and end up in the sea. After 6 p.m., the fire to clear the field had turned into a tragedy, and in the following hours «the fire in Mati» had already been classified as one of the deadliest in the world.

This morning the devastation that occurred in Mati will be revived before the Sixth Chamber of the Court of First Instance, which four years later, is called to try 21 defendants, then responsible for services and institutions, for responsibilities that are attributed to them for what happened and what did not happen before, during and after the fire that left behind 102 dead, dozens of injured and huge destruction.

Former Attica regional governor Rena Dourou, the then mayors of the region, the former secretary general of Civil Protection and executives of the Service, high-ranking members of the Fire Brigade and the Fire Brigade, as well as the private individual who caused the fire to start, who is accused of negligent arson, will sit in the dock. The defendants will be tried on a case-by-case basis for the offences of manslaughter by negligence, both by obligated and non-obligated persons, and causing bodily harm by negligence.

The victims of the deadly fire will also appear in court today, people whose loved ones were martyred, who were seriously injured themselves or their family members, some of them with serious problems from the burns they suffered. People who for years have been trying to stand on their feet and who are waiting for justice to find out whether and who is responsible for what happened, for their losses, for their long years of suffering, for each of the tragedies that make up what is collectively called the «tragedy of Mati».

A month-long interrogation was conducted in the case, at the end of which the Investigating Judge requested the upgrading of the charge to a felony for certain defendants. His position was adopted by the members of the Council of Public Prosecutors in a verdict issued by them. The matter was finally decided by the Appeals Council, which, adopting a similar prosecutor's proposal, rejected the upgrade to a felony and issued a verdict last June ordering that 21 of the 23 defendants be tried on misdemeanor charges. Appellants dismissed three defendants from the police force who had been charged, finding that they had provided adequate explanations for their actions.

The defendants are faced with an indictment which, based on their responsibilities at the time in question, imputes unpreparedness, wrong assessments of the danger of the situation, failure to intervene immediately using all means to deal with the fire at its start, delayed mobilisation both in terms of prevention and in terms of mitigating the consequences of the major fire by timely evacuation of settlements and declaration of a state of emergency to rescue citizens in need. A mass of evidence collected during the interrogation and which will be studied by the court, shows a picture of chaos and confusion that prevailed during the critical hours between the services responsible for coordinating the situation in order to limit the consequences of the fire.

    The faces of the trial and its «housing»

The case of the deadly fire in Mati is another multi-person trial that requires courtrooms with special specifications, which Athens, the country's largest judicial district, does not have.

The trial with 21 defendants involves 102 victims of negligent homicide and 32 burn victims of negligent injury. 213 persons have been called as witnesses for the prosecution, and dozens of witnesses will be called by the defendants to defend them. To these numbers must be added the lawyers for both the victims and the defendants and the journalists who will be covering the trial. Space is also required for the case file, which includes tens of thousands of pages of documents and other material that take up a room.

For the «housing» of the trial, the Ministry of Justice rejected the proposal of the new Administration of the Court of First Instance to make available the Ceremonial Hall of the Court of Appeal as the project was considered «difficult», due to the holding of the trial of Golden Dawn there. Thus, a room in the courts of the former Evelpidon school (building 9, room 12) was allocated for the trial, which was very small for the circumstances of the case. «Provision will be made to facilitate as far as possible the access of all the parties to the trial to the above-mentioned room,» the President of the Trial Division of the Court of First Instance, Christoforos Linos, said in a statement, who informs that the next sittings of the court will be held «in Room 3 of Building 13 of the former Evelpidon School, which within the current week will be suitably arranged, with the addition of additional chairs for counsel, seats for witnesses and microphones». At the same time, the Court of First Instance will have already today placed the case file in a room adjacent to the courtroom in Building 13, where the trial will be moved in the coming days.

Once the trial starts, it is expected to last for several months with the statute of limitations (2026) coming closer and closer.

Tzoulis Viniaratos