NEWS

Testimony of four charged with boy’s fairground death halted after lawyers appeal

Four people faced an investigating magistrate on Friday to answer to criminal charges of manslaughter with possible malice aforethought following the death on Sunday of a 13-year-old boy, and the serious injury of his nine-year-old sister, at an unlicensed fairground in Elliniko, south of Athens.

But lawyers representing the four — the fairground’s owner, an Italian man who rented equipment and two Bangladeshi fairground employees — complained that the charges have been upgraded to felonies from misdemeanors, prompting a break in the depositions.

A judicial council was to convene, possibly later on Friday, to decide on a response to the lawyers’ objections.

In his testimony, the 45-year-old father of the boy denied any responsibility for his son’s death. The father, who had been at the playground when the tragedy occurred, told police that employees at the site had not taken basic safety measures.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis has ordered checks on all fairgrounds, playgrounds and playgroups in a bid to ensure such an incident does not happen again

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