Crime charges for billboards
An appeals court prosecutor yesterday called for criminal charges to be lodged against the officials of the Maroussi municipality who approved the installation of street billboards believed to have provoked several motorists’ deaths. Following an appeal lodged by a local resident, whose 25-year-old son was killed after crashing into a billboard on Kifissias Avenue three years ago, appeals court prosecutor Grigoris Peponis ordered charges of manslaughter through neglect to be brought against municipal officials involved in approving the erection of the billboard that killed Yiannis Stavroulakis in December of 2005. Last October, the managing director of a Greek advertising firm was sentenced to two years and two months in jail in a landmark verdict that held him liable for the manslaughter of Stavroulakis. It was the first time an advertising firm executive has been convicted for the placement of billboards, even though this type of advertising was deemed illegal by the Council of State in April 2007.
