NEWS

Two to answer for fatal Marfin bank blaze

Two-and-a-half years after three people died in an arson attack on a branch of Marfin Egnatia Bank in central Athens during an anti-austerity rally, two suspects are to face an investigative magistrate Friday on murder charges.

The two men have been summoned following a 32-month police investigation which focused on photographs taken at the time of the attack and witness accounts.

According to sources, the case file given to the magistrate contains the testimony of several people describing the faces of the arsonists who broke the windows of the bank on May 5, 2010, and threw firebombs into the premises. Of the witnesses summoned by the security police, several identified the two suspects as the arsonists when shown photographs of them.

In their testimony on Friday, the suspects are expected to refer to a police document which, they claim, proves there is insufficient evidence to implicate them.

Relatives of Angeliki Papathanassopoulou, a 32-year-old pregnant bank clerk who died in the Marfin bank fire with two of her colleagues, issued a statement Wednesday, saying they were waiting for closure.

“We are hoping for a conviction of the arsonists and of those at Marfin Bank, who through their criminal negligence forced their workers to suffer a torturous death, which will prove liberating for us and the memory of our loved ones,” the statement said.

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