The case of the deadly 2018 Mati wildfire will return to an appeals court on September 16, this time solely to examine a request by three people with final convictions for recognition of a mitigating factor based on their previously lawful lives.
The Association of Relatives of Those Killed and Burn Victims of July 23, 2018, has strongly objected to the proceedings, arguing that critical questions surrounding the disaster remain unanswered.
The hearing concerns Sotirios Terzoudis, Vassilios Matthaiopoulos and Giannis Kapakis, after Greece’s Supreme Court accepted their appeals only on the issue of the rejection of the mitigating factor concerning their lawful lives. Their convictions in connection with the tragedy are final.
Relatives say investigation was incomplete
In a statement, relatives of victims and burn survivors argued that the judicial process did not fully address the circumstances of the disaster, pointing to what they describe as errors and omissions from the earliest stages of the investigation.
The association said that when an act by a person is not included in an indictment, a court cannot rule on it. It described what it considers a chain of events leading from an “incomplete investigation” to a “limited judicial assessment.”
Among the issues raised by the association are the cases of burn survivors who were not included in the initial court proceedings, as well as questions surrounding a mass grave and the body of a woman that it says were not investigated to the extent their seriousness required.
“How can a case be considered truly complete while critical issues that have not yet been judged remain open?” the association asked.
Focus turns to mitigating factor
The relatives and burn survivors said they do not dispute the defendants’ right to seek recognition of mitigating factors.
However, they argued that the mitigating factor concerning a person’s lawful life cannot, in their view, be examined separately from that person’s overall conduct toward the tragedy.
“Remorse cannot be only a procedural formulation when it is not demonstrated in relation to the facts and the victims themselves,” the association said.
The relatives and burn survivors said they will attend the hearing again on Sept. 16.
“We will be there on September 16 to testify again,” they said, adding that “the truth must have the opportunity to be heard there as well.”
