Mati fire victim seeks prosecution of ex-minister
The lawyer of a person who suffered multiple burns during the devastating 2018 fire at the seaside resort of Mati in eastern Attica has submitted a request for the minutes of the trial regarding the state’s handling of the fire and to prosecute the former alternate minister of citizen protection, Nikos Toskas, for false testimony.
In a written request, Panagiotis Balaktaris said Toskas denied that he had given orders on an operational level, while former prime minister Alexis Tsipras in an interview and the defendants said the opposite. Moreover, Balaktaris added that Toskas testified that he did not know about the diversion of a Floga 1 helicopter, while the rest of the witness testimony said he did.
The prosecutor in the trial has asked for guilty verdicts for nine of the 21 defendants over the state’s inept rescue efforts during the fire which caused 104 deaths and scores of injuries.
