Greek Judicial Council sends former deputy minister and four officials to Special Court over Tempi site tampering

The Judicial Council’s detailed opinion explains that Evangelos Faralas, as head of the Fire Service, instructed contractor Athanasios Pandremmenos to clear a substantial volume of soil, rubble and debris from the Tempi railway disaster site between 2-3-2023 and 7-3-2023, violating procedural rules and without court consent. Former Deputy Minister Christos Triantopoulos, regional governor Konstantinos Agorastos, General Secretary Vasilios Papageorgiou, police director Agapios Charakopoulos and Faralas acted jointly, breaching their official duties and deliberately altering the crime scene to impede evidence collection.

The council rejected Triantopoulos’s request for a new main interrogation of witness Ioannis Bratakos and ordered the separation of the case files for the remaining four defendants, sending them to the Larissa misdemeanor prosecutor for further action. The decision emphasizes that the tampering jeopardized victims’ families by depriving them of crucial forensic material needed in criminal and civil proceedings.