“We realized that day that we were not safe anywhere. It is cold to realize, so young, that no one is protecting you, that this absence of a state apparatus, which we more or less talk about from time to time, is worth living here, next to us. It’s been two years since then deadly fire 2018 in Eastern Attica When Aphrodite Chatsianastasiadiswho at the time were 23 years old, made this remark: at a critical moment, they will not be able to rely on anyone but their own strength.

These days she and other young people from Eyesome of whom are constantly watching the court session, listening to the fireman and judge Dimitris Liotsios (photo) to testify. This moment has been long awaited, they say, after his conclusion on operational duties of July 23, 2018 and the threats he made to cover them.

“I imagined a man going against the establishment, against the system, making his own revolution.” Hatzianastasiadis says “K”.. “However, from the moment his testimony began, he shows a man who serves his duty and his ethics. He may also be in an uncomfortable position for him, testifying in favor of his superiors, but he speaks based on evidence.

On the pages of the report drawn up by the expert, he pointed out the wrong actions of his superiors in the planning and operational part, the lack of communication between the authorities involved in the management of the fire, as well as inconsistencies and incorrect data that the parties involved transmitted to the Court.

Threats

summer 2020, “K” revealed that Liotios complained of blackmail attempts against him, stating that top fire officials had asked him not to carry out an examination he had done. At one of his meetings, which lasted half an hour, with the then head of the corps, Vassilis Mattaiopouloswhich he recorded, these threats sound. “Where are you going to show skills with animals, with 100 dead. Where are you going;” sounds in one audio clip. “If you write about the duties of your superiors, we will all get together and tear you apart.”

“It is important that he does not succumb to blackmail. If he had written in the conclusion what they wanted, his career could have turned out differently, but he did not,” they say …

Liotios handed over the recording of the conversation to the investigator in order to protect himself, as he believes that an attempt to sabotage his car, and then his theft, was involved in the case. In the same audio material, among other things, there is a threat of an unfavorable translation if he does not succumb to pressure: “You are 15 years old, 20 until retirement. The paper will come from above, without my will, for Samos, and at the first fire, do not raise anything for him.

In the recorded conversation, Mattaiopoulos claims that he was following orders from the political leadership at the time and that the cover-up order came from a “minister”. After the corresponding publication of “K”, a series of lawsuits followed. OUR Olga Gerovasili, who at the time of the conversation was Minister for Citizens’ Protection, claimed that the reports were “defamatory” and “not related to reality” and sued “K” and the two interlocutors. Liotsios and Mattaiopoulos sued each other.

Letter

In January 2021, the youth group of the fire-affected areas of East Attica, in a letter to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, requested that Department of Justice. In this letter, they also mentioned Liocius without naming him. They noted that all they asked for was recognition of the position of those who are fighting this case, “guaranteeing their safety and ensuring the process of justice.”

Yesterday was second day of the deposition of Lyotius in the case of the fire in East Attica. His testimony is expected to continue for several more hearings, as he is considered one of the key witnesses in the case. Defenders of the victims yesterday in court indicated that the arsonist is “the most important witness in the trial.”

OUR Chris Gerakaki she is one of the young people from the affected area who were present on the first day of his testimony. “It is important for all young people that he does not succumb to any blackmail. The case of the Eye disappoints young people. You are losing faith in the state, in society, in Justice. But the fact that there are people whose moral code coincides with ours is gratifying, you can’t reject everything, ”he emphasizes. “Had he written what they wanted on the report, his career might have gone differently, but he didn’t.”

For Hatzianastasiadis, who is overseeing the trials, defense objections to Liotsios’s testimony, as well as a request not to read his notes, add to her anxiety about how the next trials will turn out. . “This man shows that even alone, if he gets up, he can do something. This gives us hope,” he emphasizes.