Trial for the Eye: “At sea we were hit by some wood, then I found out they were bodies”

Ten witnesses testified during today’s meeting of the Three-member Criminal Court on the murder case in , mostly relatives of the victims of the 2018 national tragedy. Everyone, mentioned the lack of information about the fire in Matty by the responsible bodies as well as the lack of fire brigades and not only forces. The witness, Sumela Hatzilazaridou, who fought for seven hours at sea in order to save herself described what she dramatically experienced that afternoon. “At sea we were hit by some wood, then I found out they were bodies” “From about six I found myself at sea swimming 6.5 to 7 hours. We were hit by some wood that I found out after a while they were dead bodies. A girl had a panic attack and I took her on top of me to last. We were yelling, screaming and nothing. Late at night a fishing boat threw us a rope to climb, a lady had a heart attack. When I got up my voice was cut I couldn’t talk, which slowly comes back now after 6 years,” said the witness in court. Mrs. Hatzielazaridou also mentioned the image she saw when she went ashore. “The picture was … there was not a single ambulance, cars, ships, unaccompanied children… no provision, no organization… No one called or came to rescue us. There was not a person, a fireman, an aerial medium … This should be the port, the police, the EMCDDA … not just the firefighters,” said the witness. For his part, Anastasios Athanasopoulos, who lost his mother, whom he described as characteristically, acknowledged from her ring, stressed that: “There is no matter of streaming or arbitrariness. They could get away with it in three minutes, but it was impossible for them to leave the way it happened. The mice got caught in the trap and the fire passed the Marathon. All this about extreme phenomena and environmental crisis, applies from Marathon and above, according to us – the Matiotis – from Marathon and below became the crime of entrapment” said Athanasopoulos. The witness even said that eventually his mother’s apartment was not burned down even though the upper, lower, and next apartment were burned. “Panicism is the worst advisor. He tried with the neighbor to escape in these 19 minutes. They were surprised because there was no information, even bells. They drove away, but they wouldn’t let them. They lost valuable time fighting like a fun park crash,” said Mr.Athanasopoulos Prosecutor: If she lived in her house, do you think she’d be saved? Witness: Lotto. Prosecutor: So it wasn’t wrong for her to leave… it wasn’t panic… could she play Lotto? Witness: 19 apartments have the building. Some people played the lottery and won. On the ground floor of the apartment building, 7 ground floor apartments in one gathered 17 people and fortified with towels and also waited. My mom and the neighbor when she got the next apartment on fire, you don’t stay out of smoke. Her reaction was reasonable. After all, I come back and say it was a lottery. Common sense says I’m leaving to be saved. “My mother found fully charred” For his part, Gregory Citizen, his mother was charred in their cottage on Marathon Avenue, while his father managed to save himself, expressed the view that fire forces could have intervened. “My father, 87, reached the sea about 1 km away and stayed there about 2 hours without anyone to help him. A private man eventually took him to an ambulance with several burns on his hands and face. I am surprised that my father was able to make all this way, while specially equipped people did not,” he specifically said in his statement. The witness also described the allalum that prevailed after the murderous fire. “My mother couldn’t leave home. When we got home, we checked. The first floor was still burning. We asked for fire help, but they told us it wasn’t their job to rescue a man and call 911. After 20 minutes they came, but they told us the fire department had to come and put out the fire. We called the fire department again, and of course time’s gone. Finally my mother was found in a house outside the main house. There was nothing left but a few bones. She was completely charred. There was no organization. When the fire started to help more to extinguish, when the fire threatened there was no notice and when it reached the urban web the forces could have helped people save themselves and not had so many victims,” said Mr. Citizen. “After receiving the body with a funeral home, as we were told, we went to Dau Pentelis according to instructions. But there was no one there and had been evacuated by 5 p.m. Finally, headquarters asked us to leave her back where we found her and get her the next day. I didn’t, and they finally arranged to pick up the Cismanoglio five hours later. From there it seems the absolute lack of organization that day” the witness also stressed. “My husband was shouting: Run to the cliff!” In court also testified Anastasia-Christianna Fragu, whose family owns the estate in which dozens of people of various ages were found charred. The witness appeared perpendicular to her testimony that there were passages to the Eye and stressed that they were burned because the evacuation was not done. He then described how they attempted to leave but failed because the fire caught up with them. “We realized that there was no way to leave when a pine sparkled immediately, as if someone planted a bomb. When we entered the plot again, we see the people entering the dirt road calling for help. The only human thing we could do is open the door and go save ourselves on the cliff. Because there is no beach as the media said, but a cliff of 18 meters high, which we came down literally flying. My husband shouted “run over the cliff” and we started running. When I opened the back door of the vehicle to take our pets, I told neighbor Chrysa Spiliot who was skinny “run, what are you standing at?”, not knowing that she had gone swimming with her husband and was waiting for him… When we reached the cliff one gentleman came out of his ankle, another knocked his knees… my son fell into the sea and was lost for 2.5 hours…” said the witness President: What if you went to the cliff, there was no fear of getting killed? Witness: My grandfather had carved the rock because he liked fishing and had made rudimentary steps to catch octopuses. But in time and years they had perished. We couldn’t see anything from there, we could hear helicopters, voices of people from the sea. Around 12 o’clock, there came a boat that could somehow approach.. Those who were trapped on your property couldn’t get down? Witness: The fire runs at vertigo speed. As I was informed, the last one to be saved saw the world and broke into our house, walked into the bedroom and stayed there until he couldn’t stand it because they were all on fire, curtains, mattresses… He jumped out the window and told us he had already passed the thermal wave and I had swept the spot. There was no one standing outside… The trial continues on Wednesday, August 28.