Man arrested for Seikh Sou fire to face criminal charges of arson

A 25-year-old Greek man arrested on Friday in connection with a fire that broke out in the urban forest of Seikh Sou in Thessaloniki is to face criminal charges of setting fire to a forest, after appearing before a public prosecutor. The suspect was afterwards led before a Thessaloniki examining magistrate, who gave him time to prepare his testimony, and remained in custody.

According to the case drawn up against him by the fire brigade, he is accused of setting two fires, each a short distance from the other, using a lighter. The fires burnt pine needles, dried grasses, branches, bushes and scorched pines over an area of 530 square metres.

The suspect, who was reportedly attending a drug rehabilitation programme, denied the charges and asserted that he was forcibly taken into the forest by a group of four people who were unknown to him, who took away his shoes, socks and top and threatened to set him on fire. He claimed that the first fire was set by the four people spraying him with lighter fluid, who fled when it started to spread, and that he set the second fire himself because he was trying to keep warm.