The reaction of the New Democracy sources to PASOK’s proposal for the Conducting a pre -trial committee regarding the tragedy of Tempi. According to sources from Piraeus, the proposal of Harilaou Trikoupis, aimed at former Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Costas Ah. Karamanlis, and seven other politicians, are described as “undocumented and legally unfounded”.
The same sources commented on that “Mr. Androulakis’ PASOK jealous of SYRIZA and the doctrine of Polakis”, recalling earlier controversy. At the same time, they assured that the government majority are carefully examining the entire case file and would soon announce its official position after completing the evaluation of the available data.
Emphasizing the New Democracy’s commitment to institutions, sources characteristically stated that “in any case, the New Democracy, as it has proven to date and in the case of Christos Triantopoulos, is completely institutional and will be placed as a whole, without standing in the way of the work of justice.”
Subsequently, government sources presented six main reasons that, in their view, deconstruct PASOK’s indictment for criminal offenses:
- Abstract indictment: They argue that the argumentation of a crime against Kostas Karamanlis, Christos Spirtzis and the Deputy Ministers of the 2016-2023 period is completely unfounded and unsubstantiated, unless PASOK believes they are personally and deliberately responsible for tragedy.
- Political exploitation: They accuse PASOK and the rest of the opposition of attempting a political exploitation of the tragedy, adopting unsubstantiated scenarios and conspiracy theories, rather than seeking the truth and rendering of responsibilities based on facts.
- Administrative Supervision: They point out that the supervision of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to OSE and ERGOSE is exclusively administrative and does not concern security issues for which the RAS and the European Railway Agency (ERA), which had issued security certificates before the tragedy.
- Contradiction in the indictment: They ask how it is possible to seek criminal inspection of officials for non -timely recommendations to the Minister and at the same time assigned responsibilities, even fraudulent, to the Minister himself.
- Personal Responsibility: They refute PASOK’s claim for transferring responsibilities by officials to the minister, stressing that criminal liability is personal and is not transferred hierarchically.
- Separation of Political and Criminal Liability: They emphasize that the New Democracy over time separates politics from criminal responsibility, citing examples where it did not seek criminal prosecutions in corresponding tragedies as an opposition. In addition, they note that the transmitter of justice concerns only the ministers of the period and not the deputy ministers, while for Christos Spirtzis there is a deadline due to Article 86 of the Constitution prior to its revision.