Parliament Forms A Committee To Investigate Greek Ministers Related To Deadly Train Accidents

UNSPLASH/Yorgos ILLUSTRATION Triantafyllou

JAKARTA - The Greek parliament voted to form a committee to investigate how a minister handled the impact of a deadly train accident in 2023 days after violent protests protested the government's lack of accountability.

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks took to the streets on Friday last week to commemorate the second year of the country's worst rail disaster that killed 57 people, most of whom were students.

As reported by Reuters, on Wednesday, March 5, continued demonstrations are scheduled outside parliament, where political leaders will discuss responsibility for the train tragedy. Opposition parties will most likely file a motion of condemnation of the government.

The majority of the 277 lawmakers on board of 300 people support the motion proposed by the main opposition of the new committee.

Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Christos Triantopoulos, who served as minister of state at the time of the accident, resigned from his post on Tuesday to support an investigation by parliament.

Parliament will investigate potential breach of duty. While Triantopoulos denied wrongdoing.

Judicial investigations into the accident are ongoing.

Relatives of the victims criticized the right-right government, which won the election again after the crisis in 2023, for not starting or supporting parliamentary investigations into political responsibility.

They said authorities were trying to cover up evidence by placing the pebbles at the scene as soon as the accident occurred. Triantopoulos, who was at the scene after the incident, denied the allegations and deemed them baseless.

Christos Papadimitriou, head of the railroad division of the Greek Air and Railway Accident Investigation Authority, last week told newspaper Kathimerini the ignorance of authorities and lack of experience was likely the cause of the significant loss of evidence from the scene.