Race against time for Mati fire trial
Amid risk posed by statute of limitations, appeal in the second degree is set for July 8
With the risk of the statute of limitations for any responsibility linked to the deadly fire in 2018 in Mati in East Attica being real and imminent, the justice system is expediting judicial procedures so that those who were brought to trial for the tragedy do not go completely unpunished.
After the appeal against the first degree decision, which had stirred up a storm of reactions among the relatives of the victims and the dozens of people who suffered burns, the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Office set the trial in the second degree at the Appeals Court for July 8, so as to avoid – if it’s not too late – the statute of limitations regarding any responsibility for the tragedy.
This is because the statute of limitations will expire for all those on trial in July 2026, and by then the judiciary must not only have completed the trial in the second instance (Court of Appeal), but, in addition, any decision must have become irrevocable, that is, the relevant proceedings of the Supreme Court must have been completed.
Given that the trial at first instance lasted 19 months, it is difficult to assess whether the statute of limitations has been avoided. This is because the first instance decision, which was heavily criticized for its leniency, has effectively disappeared in court, as an appeal has been lodged by the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Office on all points of the decision – both for the convictions, only six out of a total of 21 defendants, and for the sentences, which were five years for the high-ranking state officials and three years for the elderly man who set the fire, but also for the mitigating circumstances, and finally for the conversion of the sentences into fines, which was seen as the final insult.
The court of first instance sentenced only five high-ranking officers of the Fire Service and the Coordination Unit to five years’ imprisonment for 102 counts of manslaughter by negligence and 32 bodily injuries by negligence, and sentenced the elderly man who set the initial fire to three years’ imprisonment.
Of the total 21 defendants who were in the dock, only six were found guilty with the sentences mentioned above, while the court then proceeded to convert their sentences into money: 10 euros per day.
