According to parliamentary sources, a case file concerning former Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport, Christos Spirtzis and Kostas Achilleas Karamanlis, has been forwarded to Parliament from the Greek Supreme Court. The file, compiled by appellate investigating judge Sotiris Bakaimis in Larisa, pertains to the inquiry into potential political responsibilities surrounding the Tempe train disaster.

The extensive dossier has been transmitted under the provisions of the law on ministerial accountability and is expected to be formally presented to the plenary session of Parliament this coming Wednesday. MPs will be granted access to the documents in a specially designated room on the ground floor of the Parliament building, adjacent to the office of the Speaker.

According to a report by ERT, on Thursday, 24 April, the appellate investigating judge handling the Tempe case submitted the latest findings to the Larissa Prosecutor’s Office, having identified possible criminal liabilities on the part of the two former Transport Ministers spanning the period from 2016 up to the time of the fatal crash. These findings concern Christos Spirtzis and Kostas Karamanlis.

The very next day, Friday 25 April, the complete case file was forwarded in digital form to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, who immediately dispatched it to the Ministry of Justice for transmission to Parliament.

Under the ministerial responsibility law, the investigating magistrate, Mr Bakaimis, is not permitted to evaluate the evidence or characterise the alleged offences. Nonetheless, senior judicial sources note that at least one serious offence is implicated: endangering the safety of transport infrastructure, a felony. This inference arises from the testimonies of two senior officials from the Ministry of Transport, along with documents they themselves submitted to the investigator. According to these documents, the political leadership was aware of the problems plaguing the railway system and the attendant risks to passenger safety.

Reports indicate that the material is voluminous and, in line with parliamentary regulations, must be submitted in printed form rather than digitally. This means numerous boxes of documents are expected to arrive, which MPs will be able to scrutinise starting from Wednesday.

Subsequently, the process requires the collection of at least 30 MP signatures in order to establish a parliamentary investigation committee. This committee would be tasked with examining potential criminal liabilities of political figures who served as ministers, and would need to specify the exact charges for each individual involved.

Konstantopoulou: “We must work together to propose a preliminary investigation committee”

Zoe Konstantopoulou, leader of the Course of Freedom, stressed that “the decision by the Special Appellate Investigator to forward the criminal file on the Tempe crime to Parliament opens a crucial front and places a historic responsibility upon us.” She urged opposition parties and their leaders to coordinate efforts immediately in order to submit a formal proposal for the establishment of a Preliminary Investigation Committee to examine the government officials responsible for the Tempe tragedy.

According to Konstantopoulou, “the government must be pressed to declare whether it will agree to the formation of such a committee, or if it will once again attempt to obstruct the process, as it did previously in the cases of Mr Karamanlis and more recently Mr Triantopoulos.” She emphasised that it is also the responsibility of the Speaker of Parliament to ensure full institutional transparency.

Speaking both as leader of her party and as a legal representative for families of the victims, Konstantopoulou pledged to take further steps, including submitting a formal request for a session of Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee. She intends to demand the presence of the Supreme Court Prosecutor at the session, to provide clarity on the handling of the Tempe case.

“I once again call on all opposition parties and their leaders to join forces to seek justice, to demand genuine accountability, transparency, and to honour the memory and lives of those who perished so violently, as well as to defend the rights of those who survived,” she said.

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