Maria Karystianou, President of the Association of Tempe victims’ families, raises critical questions regarding the investigation of the Tempe train crash in a new post, this time addressing the special appellate investigating judge, Sotiris Bakaimis. She accuses him of serious omissions and warns him not to "bury" the case file.

Maria Karystianou highlights that Bakaimis took over the case from the investigating judge of Larissa, Eleni Sourla, after an intervention by the PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with his goal of covering up the Tempe crime. She argues that for the past two years, Bakaimis has failed to include crucial evidence in the case file, such as audio recordings and digital documents seized by the Criminal Investigations Department (DEE) on 14-15 March, 2023, as well as a forensic report from June 28, 2023.

“We were stunned to find out that all these elements had been handed over to the judge as early as March 2023,” Karystianou states, demanding to know why, two years later, this evidence has still not been incorporated and why it was withheld from the involved parties and their technical consultants.

Key quotes from Karystianou’s full post:

  • “On 06/03/2023, Mr Mitsotakis personally asked the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Mr Doyakos—known for his very close ties with the government—to upgrade the Tempe case to the highest investigative level! Since when does the PM of the country direct the Supreme Court Prosecutor to change the investigating judge of the Tempe case?”
  • “And lo and behold, the case is taken out of the hands of the Larissa Investigating Judge, Ms. Sourla, and handed over to the carefully selected investigator, the Honorable Mr Bakaimis, who was specifically assigned to ‘do the job’.”
  • “Who is Mr Bakaimis, the man chosen following Mr Mitsotakis’ order?”
  • “He is the man who, two years later (!) has not incorporated into the Tempe case file the audio files and all the digital and electronic documents seized by the Criminal Investigations Department on 14/03/2023 and 15/03/2023, in execution of the order of the former investigating judge, Ms. Sourla, numbered 94/2023.”
  • “Why, despite having these invaluable pieces of evidence from 14/03/2023 and 15/03/2023—within the critical 15 days after the disaster—were they never included in the case file, while instead, we are dealing with a video of unknown origin, from an unknown handler, who supposedly had it buried in a drawer?”
  • “What does the Honorable Mr Investigating Judge have to say in response to all of the above? But beyond all this, what does he have to say about:
  1. Failing to seize and incorporate the hard drives he was obligated to review if he truly wanted to uncover the truth?
  2. Accepting edited audio recordings of the stationmasters and irrelevant videos, without investigating who manipulated and concealed evidence, as he was legally required to do?
  3. Failing to investigate the unexplained deaths of two key figures in the case, Konstantinos Chrysagis and Kostas Prassas, who allegedly died by accident within 20 hours of each other, refusing to establish any connection or conduct any inquiry?
  4. Persistently refusing to investigate the illegal cargo of chemicals, despite overwhelming evidence pointing to their presence?
  5. Not forwarding even the selectively edited videos that surfaced over the weekend in the media to the Criminal Investigations Department, instead fast-tracking them to appointed experts who have no relevant expertise—while banning our own technical consultants from having any input?
  6. Not summoning key eyewitness survivors of the crash until 15 months later—only after intense pressure from us?
  7. Denying the exhumation of our dead children, which would reveal the chemicals their burned bodies absorbed?
  8. Allowing violations of standard investigative protocols, permitting evidence tampering, and ignoring the forensic experts’ failure to conduct mandatory toxicological examinations that would have confirmed the presence of chemicals in our children’s remains?
  9. Not even investigating the chemical burns suffered by firefighters at the scene?
  10. Failing to summon for questioning those involved in the cover-up, in order to at least attempt to salvage what remains hidden or altered by those responsible?
  11. Deceiving the victims’ families and lawyers for two years about actions he supposedly planned to take—actions he never took—ultimately buying time for the defendants while subjecting us to unprecedented emotional and financial burn-out?”

“We found out that, using the latest conveniently surfaced and dubious video that we just saw in the media, he is preparing to close the case file in a rush—because, as they say, a drowning man will clutch at a straw. Does he really believe he will be allowed to trample on the law and obstruct the truth forever, just because those protecting him are ‘intouchable‘? Does he not realize that fortresses fall—with a resounding crash?”

“Don’t you dare, ‘Honorable’ Mr Investigating Judge, to bury this case file too.”

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