Greek ex-transport minister to be investigated over train tragedy

Greece's parliament voted Thursday to investigate a former transport minister over the country's worst rail tragedy that left 57 dead in 2023.Government lawmakers approved the probe into the actions of Kostas Karamanlis, who has welcomed the investigation as an opportunity to clear his name.Fifty-seven people, most of them young students, were killed in February 2023 when a passenger train and a freight train collided in Tempe, central Greece, having been allowed to run on the same track for 12 minutes.The tragedy sparked sweeping strikes and hundreds of protests in Greece and abroad.Karamanlis, a member of one of Greece's most influential political families, told lawmakers that he would "never forget" the night of the accident.He insisted he had done "everything" in his power to improve the state of Greek railways."I did not neglect, I did not ignore the railways, quite the opposite," Karamanlis said during the debate that began Wednesday."I too want justice... I fully support the proposal" to set up a special inquiry committee, he added.A parliamentary committee will now examine whether Karamanlis should be referred to justice for breach of duty, a misdemeanour-level offence.

Opposition parties, who had sought criminal charges for Karamanlis, accused the conservative government of seeking to "launder" its responsibilities by backing a probe into a lesser charge.Some parties had sought to implicate Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself.Taking the floor on Wednesday, Mitsotakis dismissed as "disgraceful" a proposal by leftist and far-right parties to have him investigated for high treason.Over 40 people have been prosecuted over the collision, including the station master responsible for routing the trains that night.Lawmakers already voted to refer a former junior minister, Christos Triantopoulos, to justice on possible misdemeanour charges for breach of duty in connection with the aftermath of the accident.Opposition parties say Triantopoulos, who was dispatched by the prime minister to the scene after the accident, authorised the bulldozing of the crash site, which led to the loss of vital evidence.Triantopoulos denies wrongdoing.Greece's intercity trains came under private management in 2017, when state-owned Greek rail operator TrainOSE was privatised and sold to Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, becoming Hellenic Train.In April, a bomb exploded outside Hellenic Train's offices, without causing any injuries.