Routsi had been testifying for approximately an hour when he suddenly became unwell and was transferred to Larissa General Hospital. Before the hearing was adjourned, he spoke about the grief endured by the victims’ families and their determination to see those responsible held accountable.
‘For 12 minutes, two trains were travelling on the same track, and no one realised that 12 minutes later those people would no longer be alive. Whether we wanted to or not, we became investigators ourselves.
‘I respect and trust the justice system, but from what I have seen so far, I do not believe that some are doing their jobs as they should. This saddens me deeply when so many people have died.
‘The wound remains open. It has not healed. We are still grieving. If there had been a signal, the children would have lived.
‘I will not stop until I find out how my child died. We believe in you. We believe the truth will come out, and it will, because none of us relatives will let this go.
‘Justice must be independent. Madam President, at some point, those responsible, whoever they are, must be held accountable.
‘We cannot continue living through this torment, which has lasted almost four years. It cannot go on any longer. We cannot lead normal lives.’
Court rejects request for deadline on stationmaster’s phone examination
Shortly before Wednesday’s hearing concluded, the presiding judge announced that the court had rejected a defence lawyer’s request to supplement an earlier ruling concerning the seized mobile phone of the accused night-shift stationmaster.
Under its original ruling, the court had ordered the lifting of communications confidentiality and a forensic examination of the device by the relevant department of the Hellenic Police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
The examination covers incoming and outgoing calls, SMS and MMS messages, and data from messaging applications such as Viber. Investigators will also attempt to recover any deleted files discovered during the examination.
The defence lawyer had requested that the ruling be supplemented to establish a specific deadline for the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to submit its forensic report.
The prosecutor recommended rejecting the request, arguing that no amendment was necessary because the existing ruling already stipulated that the report should be delivered ‘as soon as possible’.
The court accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and rejected the request.
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