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Greece Opens Mass Trial in 2023 Tempe Rail Disaster With 36 Defendants

Public outrage centers on absent political defendants.

Des milliers de personnes se sont rassemblées pour demander justice, à l’occasion du troisième anniversaire de la catastrophe ferroviaire de Tempé, sur la place Syntagma à Athènes, le 28 février.
[Nikolas Kokovlis / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP]
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Manifestation pour le 3e anniversaire de l'accident de train de Tempé, en Grèce, le 28 février 2026 à Athènes

Overview

  • Proceedings began in Larissa and were moved to a university conference venue to accommodate the scale of the case.
  • Thirty-six people are charged in connection with the head-on collision that killed 57, with 33 facing criminal counts that can carry life sentences.
  • At least 352 prosecution witnesses are listed, and the opening session was repeatedly interrupted as families and lawyers pressed for better trial conditions.
  • Railway workers staged a nationwide strike on the first day of the trial, halting train services as a gesture of remembrance and protest.
  • Investigations cited long-delayed signaling upgrades and the loss of evidence after the site was bulldozed, and the EU’s chief prosecutor has said the crash was avoidable with timely modernization.