Defense lawyers for the defendants in the closely watched Tempi rail disaster trial on Monday completed arguments regarding the prosecutor’s recommendation, clearing the way for further submissions by parties seeking to support the prosecution.
Proceedings continued with remarks by attorney and opposition political party leader Zoe Konstantopoulou, who represents a handful of relatives of Tempi victims.
The Greek state is seeking damages only from three station masters and the former head of a regional rail directorate. The state’s intervention does not extend to the remaining defendants in the case, a position that has drawn criticism from victims’ families and some legal representatives, who argue that the disaster cannot be attributed solely to individual operational errors.
The Tempi trial, being heard before the three-member court of appeal in Larissa, concerns the Feb. 28, 2023 collision between a passenger train and a freight train just south of the Tempi rail tunnel. The collision killed 57 people, most of them young passengers. The proceedings involve 36 defendants, including officials and employees of the state railway operator OSE, infrastructure manager ERGOSE, the transport ministry, private train operator Hellenic Train and the rail regulator. Thirty-three defendants face felony charges linked to railway safety failures, while additional misdemeanor charges include negligent homicide, bodily injury and breach of duty.
Konstantopoulou, a former parliament president and founder of the leftist Course of Freedom (Plefsi Eleftherias) party, has emerged as one of the most prominent lawyers representing victims’ relatives in the Tempi proceedings.
The court is currently examining procedural issues concerning which individuals and organizations may formally support the prosecution before moving to substantive evidentiary hearings. According to news reports, the question of the Greek state’s participation has become one of the central procedural disputes in the early stages of the trial, with prosecutors recommending that the state’s claim be rejected because it targets only the four railway officials while excluding other defendants.
