Tempi 2023 Victims' Association president Maria Karystianou (C) sits with relatives inside the "Gaipolis" conference venue at the University campus in Larissa as the trial opens over the deadly Tempi train crash, which killed 57 people. Photo by Sakis Mitrolidis / AFP
Larissa, Greece: A long-awaited trial opened Monday over Greece's worst train tragedy that killed 57 people in 2023, leaving the entire country in shock.
Thirty-six people face charges and over 350 witnesses are due to be heard at the trial that opened in the central city of Larissa, near where a freight train and a passenger train collided on February 28, 2023.
Among those to testify are survivors and family members of the victims, some of whom are believed to have burned to death after surviving the initial collision. Most of the dead were students returning from a carnival weekend.
"This trial is starting with great delay...what we want is exemplary punishment of those responsible," Pavlos Aslanidis, whose 26-year-old son died in the accident and who heads the Association of Victims' Families, told reporters before the start of the trial.
Maria Karystianou, a pediatrician who led the association for years, and is now planning to launch a political party, said no investigation was carried out into how her daughter "burned alive" and called the trial "stunted."
"We want the truth to come out," she said outside the courthouse on Monday.
The accused include the station master on duty on the night of the accident, other railway officials and two Italian former employees of the trains' parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato.
The two trains had run on the same track for more than 10 minutes without triggering an alarm.
