Former SYRIZA transport minister seeks lifting of his own immunity over rail crash
Former transport and infrastructure minister Christos Spirtzis, who served under SYRIZA from 2016 to 2019, is demanding that his immunity from prosecution be lifted in relation to the ongoing investigations into the deadly train crash in Tempe last year, which cost the lives of 57 people.
In a letter addressed to House speaker Konstantinos Tassoulas, who has the authority to bring such a motion to Parliament, Spirtzis claimed that he was seeking to address suggestions that oversights during his stewardship of the Transport Ministry may have contributed to the February 28, 2013, collision between a passenger and freight train on the Athens-Thessaloniki line in central Greece.
He said he feels “duty-bound” to “defend my character, overall trajectory and work against any insult and any attempt at defamation.”
The former leftist minister referred in particular to findings in two separate inquiries into the accident – one by Greek judicial authorities and the other by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) – indicating that the crash may have been prevented if a remote signaling system and controls project, which was bankrolled with EU funding and signed in 2014, had been implemented properly and on time.
A parliamentary inquiry into the crash has also indicated that a more thorough investigation into its causes is needed, though in its conclusions, voted by ruling New Democracy party late on Wednesday, it fell short of recommending legal action against the two officials who headed the Transport Ministry during the time in question – Spirtzis and his successor from governing ND, Kostas A. Karamanlis, who resigned after the crash.
“I was never given the opportunity, despite asking for it in every manner, to address the various insinuations and/or accusations launched at my expense,” Spirtzis said in his letter to Tassoulas.
“Much more so, I was not given the opportunity to respond to the letter from the European Prosecutor in which she requests, among other things, an investigation into ErgOSE’s Contract 717 from 2014 for possible ‘breach of duty’ offenses on my part, without, however, in any way referring to actions or overnights that could substantiate it,” he added, referring to the OSE railway organization’s arm that is responsible for infrastructure.
EPPO’s probe found indications of breach of duty and misappropriation of funds on the part of Spirtzis and Karamanlis, who served as the ministers of transport under different governments from 2016 and until the crash and were ultimately responsible for ensuring that the contract was implemented.
The current legal framework in Greece does not allow EPPO to pursue this line of inquiry further as ministers enjoy immunity from prosecution for actions taken during their time in office.
