In an atmosphere charged with pain, rage and a sense of justification, the relatives of her victims murder fire in the eye They strongly condemned the convicted officials as they were led to prison. During the departure of Sotiris Terzoudi, Vassilis Matthaiopoulos and Ioannis Kapakis from the courtroom, the crowd broke out, shouting rhythmically and applauding long with a name: “Liotsios, Liotsios”.
The reference to Dimitris Liotsios, the Fire Brigade officer who was appointed as a judicial expert for the tragedy of July 23, 2018, was an act of highest symbolism. The relatives thus wanted to express their gratitude to the man who, according to his complaints, was unbearable pressure from the then deputy commander, Vasilis Matthaiopoulos, to alter his findings and attribute the destruction exclusively to the weather. Mr Litsiou’s attitude was crucial to the revelation of criminal omissions that led to the hundreds of dead.
Earlier, the announcement of the court’s ruling on the detriment of prison sentences caused tears of relief to many of the attendees who were embracing each other. In this climate, the screams of despair and rage were not lacking. A victim mother was shouting to the convicts “An apology, guys, an apology”, while others were screaming “cursed in prison”.
The prosecutor of the headquarters, addressing relatives, expressed her sympathy by saying “I wish I could do something more”, to receive the apostolic response that summarizes the magnitude of the tragedy: “the dead remain dead”.