Six out of 21 defendants found guilty in deadly Mati fire

A three-member misdemeanors court issued its verdict on Monday regarding the deadly fire in Mati, in 2018, which claimed 104 lives and left many injured.

The court found 6 of the 21 defendants guilty, sparking the reaction of the victims' families who shouted: "They should have gone to jail by themselves! All innocent? There is no justice!"

More specifically, it found guilty Sotiris Terzoudis, then chief of the Fire Brigade (manslaughter by negligence and bodily harm by negligence for the helicopter diversion) Vassilis Mattheopoulos then deputy chief (manslaughter by negligence for the death of 9 people at sea), Ioannis Fostieris, commander of the Unified Operations Coordination Center (guilty of manslaughter by negligence), Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, former head of the Attica Fire Services, and Charalambos Chionis, former commander of the Fire Services of Eastern Attica (manslaughter by negligence for 102 people and bodily injury by negligence of 32 people) as well as Konstantinos Angelopoulos, resident of Daou-Penteli from whose house yard the fire started.

The court acquitted Fire Service officials Christos Golfinos, Philippos Panteleakos, Damianos Papadopoulos, Christos Lambris, Christos Drosopoulos, Georgios Portozoudis, and Stefanos Kolokouris as well as Christos Syrogiannis, then Greek police airborne officer, Ioannis Kapakis, then secretary general of Civil Protection, Rena Dourou, then regional governor of Attica, and then mayors of Marathonas, Ilias Psinakis, and Penteli, Dimitris-Stergiou Kapsalis.

It also found non-guilty Vaios Thanasias, then deputy mayor of the Municipality of Marathonas, Evangelos Bournous, then mayor of Rafina-Pikermi, and Antonis Palpatzis, then deputy mayor of Rafina-Pikermi.