Politico: Greece rejects EU prosecutor’s call to take action against two ex-ministers after train crash

Greek government rejects European prosecutor’s call take action regarding possible criminal liability of two former transport ministers following the deadly train collision that rocked the country last February.

Protesters took to the streets last year after 57 people – many of them students – were killed in the country’s worst train accident on February 28. They blamed the head-on collision between a freight and passenger train at Tempi in the north of the country on senior management and corruption.

The European Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) supported these suspicions last month by charging 23 suspects, including 18 civil servants, with crimes related to the execution of contracts for remote traffic control and signaling systems in a network co-funded EU.

EPPO has even more serious targets in its sights: two former ministers

In a letter sent by EPPO prosecutor Popi Papandreou to Greek authorities on June 2 and obtained by POLITICO, she noted that during the investigation into the disaster, “suspicions arose regarding alleged criminal offenses committed by former members of the Greek government.”

“These alleged criminal offenses relate to breach of duty committed by former Minister Christos Spyrtzis and embezzlement committed by former Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, Papandreou wrote in the document. – We ask you to take your own measures.”.

The demand to take action against the two former ministers is based on a feature of Greek law under which only parliament can investigate allegations of misconduct against former ministers. However, the Greek government buried the case politically, using its parliamentary majority to reject the need for an investigative committee.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis initially blamed “tragic human error”but was forced to back down after he was accused of trying to cover up the government’s role.

EPPO believes that the Greek constitutional quirk that only parliament can bring cases against ministers is contrary to EU law and has appealed to the European Commission.

“It is the commission that must monitor the inconsistency of national legislation with EU legislation, – Europe’s Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruca Kövesi said in an interview POLITICO, answering a question about the lockdown in Greece. – The commission is aware of the situation, it is very public, but I cannot comment on what they will do.”

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis initially blamed the incident on “tragic human error” | Nick Paleologos/Sooc/AFP via Getty Images

Ministerial responsibilities

After the accident, Karamanlis resigned, saying he was leaving “as a sign of respect for the memory of people who died so unjustly”. In the June national elections he was re-elected in his northern constituency of Serres for the ruling party “New Democracy”.

Christos Spyrtzis, who served as transport minister under the previous left-wing government led by Syriza, was not re-elected.

EPPO’s Papandreou wrote that she was referring Spirtzis’ case due to “a crime involving breach of duty.” She gave more detailed information about Karamanlis, stating that she was referring his case in connection with “a crime of embezzlement against the financial interests of the European Union and the Greek State, the damage from which exceeds a total of 120,000 euros”, in connection with the repair and modernization of railway signals and switches.

The EPPO case against Spirtzis and Karamanlis has been transferred to the Greek Supreme Court and from there to the Greek Parliament. Parliament then had to decide whether it would set up a preliminary committee of inquiry to find out whether the case should be referred to a special court.

Greece’s Supreme Court sent the case to Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas on June 29, according to a document seen by POLITICO. In November, parliament considered setting up a preliminary investigative committee against former ministers, including Spirtzis and Karamanlis. The centre-left PASOK party referred to the EPPO findings during the debate and supported the idea. However, the proposal was ultimately rejected and the case was archived.

Spyrtzis told POLITICO that he personally supported parliament’s idea of ​​holding a preliminary investigation to reject the allegations against him and added that he asked to be treated the same as any other Greek citizen. He added that there should be no statute of limitations due to the special provision for ministers. “Unfortunately, New Democracy did not support my request.“, he noted. Speaking in parliament at the end of November, he said that the investigation would prove his innocence and give “the final answer to New Democracy’s attempt to decompose political responsibility.”

Karamanlis did not respond to requests for comment and referred to a speech he gave in November

Speaking in parliament, Karamanlis said he opposed PASOK’s proposal to create an investigative committee. “I resigned immediately and made my resignation public on my way back [из Темпи] and even before arriving in Athens– he said. This was dictated by my morals and principles. I took upon myself objective political responsibility not only for my term, but also for the terms of all my predecessors. This is an extremely rare phenomenon in the political morality of our country.”

A relative of a victim of the February 28 train crash during a protest in Athens in December 2023 | Yannia Kolesidis/EFE via EPA

The Greek government and the parliament speaker’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

“I wouldn’t load vegetables onto a Greek railway”

As a result, Parliament decided to create a wider parliamentary inquiry to “to investigate the Tempi crime and all aspects connected with it.” However, trust in him has already been undermined. Rather than focusing on the crash, the investigation goes through the entire history of the Greek railway system over the past decades, and the ruling majority “New Democracy” rejected proposals for cross-party representation in the seat.

Opposition parties have accused the government of a cover-up, and last week the family of a train driver killed in the disaster sent a legal notice to the committee, accusing a representative “New Democracy” in the committee “an attempt to shift blame onto the deceased driver, using medical documents to create the impression of medical problems that allegedly made him unfit for work.”

“So where is the attempt that will reveal the truth to us?” asked Maria Karystianu, who lost her 20-year-old daughter in the accident, speaking at the hearing on Wednesday. “When I learned how the railroad worked, I wouldn’t even load vegetables on it.”

She insisted that she should testify in court rather than in parliament, complaining that lawmakers were not competent enough to handle such an investigation. Protesting the immunity granted to Karamanlis as a member of parliament, she accused his colleagues of not having “legal status”to take on a matter that has deprived “the lives of so many young people.”

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