War of words over Tempe tampering claim

The government has denied claims in a Sunday newspaper that the audio recordings allegedly between a stationmaster and a driver taken on the night of the Tempe railway disaster were tampered with before their publication in the media.

In a report headlined “The montage in Tempe casts new shadows on tragedy,” the Vima on Sunday newspaper claimed that different recordings between railway employees were stitched together so as to give the impression that the disaster, which claimed the lives of 57 people, was the result of human error on the part of the Larissa station master.

Government sources, however, said that the investigating authorities have complete sets of recordings from the night in question. They also argue that the paper’s revelation is not new, as a few days after the train crash, some media outlets – including state broadcaster ERT – already revealed that the transcripts involved conversations with another person and not just between the stationmaster and driver. 

The sources pointed out that the stationmaster has already admitted to human error on his part.

“It is now obvious that the attempt to weaponize human suffering, by creating impressions based on a de facto lie, seeks to destabilize and return the country to an era of toxicity and hatred,” the sources said.

The Citizen Protection Ministry, which has oversight over the police, said that its “service did not make a transcript for the case in question.”

New Democracy said that the “tactic of misleading headlines to create impressions is extremely dangerous.”

However, opposition parties point to the fact that the edited conversations were leaked to media on March 1, 2023, a day before they were handed over to the judicial authorities.

Main opposition SYRIZA said that “the new revelations about the attempt to cover up the crime of Tempe by the New Democracy government  … have caused revulsion,” adding that the government faces “relentless questions” over the affair.

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, on leave while serving a 20-day stint as an enlisted Army private, called for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign and new elections held, with the presence of international observers.

Socialist PASOK described the report as “more confirmation of the government’s sick pattern of cover-ups, corruption and impunity.”

The Communist Party questioned on whose orders were the recordings tampered with.