Judicial race against time for Mati ruling review
In the wake of the public outcry sparked by the lenient sentencing of those defendants found guilty in the trial over the state apparatus’ handling of the deadly Mati fire in 2018, the Supreme Court prosecutor Georgia Adelini has instructed the head of the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, Kalliopi Vardaki, to scrutinize the decision and the case file in order to immediately file an appeal within a tight deadline.
The law provides for an exhaustingly tight deadline of just 10 days to appeal. This means the appeal for a review of the decision must be made by the Wednesday after Easter at the latest. The appeal will be made ex officio in an attempt to expedite the review of the case.
The conversion of the five-year prison sentence handed to the five defendants, all former high-ranking officials of the state apparatus, to a fine of 38,000 euros for each was the final straw.
