Ahead of the trial for the Tempi railway tragedy, set to begin in Larissa on March 23, Ioanna Mandrou spoke on “Parapolitika 90.1” about the prosecutor’s directive from Larissa regarding the macabre issue of exhumations. She recalled that Panos Routsis had conducted hunger strikes in Syntagma Square for 20 days, demanding justice allow him to exhume his child. “Close to this issue, the list of those victims for whom exhumation will take place was expanded,” she added, emphasizing that “Mr. Routsis made an effort that deeply moved many people, the entire nation. Many months have passed since then and his child’s exhumation ultimately did not happen. It didn’t happen, and let’s see why it didn’t happen.”
Read: Tempi: Court composition announced for main trial on March 23
Tempi: 10 relatives requested exhumation
Ioanna Mandrou pointed out that justice exceptionally granted permission for exhumations of victims by relatives who wished it. “A deadline was given and of the 57 Tempi victims, ultimately only 10 requested exhumation of their loved one. The others don’t want it. For their own reasons. Of these, one is abroad and didn’t respond, so nine remained. Four months have passed since then. And the question is what has happened in these four months,” she noted, answering: “To be completely honest about reality. Many deadlines and extensions have been given from the judicial side. Justice always appoints expert witnesses from the list that courts maintain. Each court has a list with competent scientists of every specialty if they need to appoint someone as a forensic pathologist, expert witness, angiologist, etc. So Justice appoints its own. Victims’ relatives are obligated to appoint their own. These are called technical advisors. And if they want to approach a laboratory.”
Where progress on Tempi victim exhumations stalls
The parents “appointed technical advisors with delay, but they appointed them. Where things get stuck and exhumations haven’t happened for so long… The laboratories that will conduct the tests. What tests? The justice decision includes three types of examinations. DNA which isn’t very significant, because DNA was done before burial… but it’s good to repeat it, toxicological and histological.” However, according to Ioanna Mandrou, these tests are always conducted with reservation, as it’s uncertain after three years what the bodies can actually reveal.
However, the entire process is delayed because laboratories that will conduct the analyses haven’t been declared yet. “The matter has a real difficulty here. The victims, not all, request these laboratories to be abroad. Outside Greece. For what reason? Because some of them don’t trust laboratories here. However, our legislation, like other European legislations, doesn’t allow transfer of bodies from one country to another. In simple terms, laboratories must be domestic. Whichever one wants. Here then lies the knot of delay. After four months passed, the prosecutor’s office says because the trial is imminent and the results of these toxicological, histological tests and DNA repetition (…) must be in the package when the trial begins.”
According to relatives, exhumations are necessary to learn what their people died from, whether they died from the train collision or from the fire.
The laboratory question
At this point Ioanna Mandrou wondered: “Is it possible that laboratories don’t exist in Greece? There are laboratories in Greece. This is what stalls things. The Prosecutor’s Office gave this somewhat, I would say suffocating deadline. Nine days. It’s 24 hours for expert witnesses to go present a bulletin to laboratories. Two days for laboratories to respond, etc. Police authorities to notify relatives, because in a person’s exhumation, relatives, expert witnesses from the judicial side, technical advisors from the other side, chemists, specialists… must be there…” However, Tempi victims’ relatives “prefer to send samples to foreign laboratories, they do this only for trust reasons or consider that some centers abroad are more specialized. It’s a mix. Others don’t trust, because frankly, to be honest, since many things have happened, I’m the first of the opinion and will say directly that there are laboratories in Greece, but when these people have been burned by hot milk, they blow on yogurt too.” Finally, as Ioanna Mandrou said, “the court begins on March 23.”
