Mass protests demand justice for rail crash victims

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Greece on Sunday The mass protests demand justice for rail crash victims demanded of the nation’s deadliest rail disaster in 2023.

Demonstrations broke out in 97 cities in Greece and 13 locations abroad. Marches in the largest Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki had about 30,000 and 16,000 demonstrators respectively.

“What is happening today is majestic,” Pavlos Aslanidis, the father of a victim, told the media in Thessaloniki. “This is now a global fight,” he added, referring to the protests abroad.

Demonstrations broke out in 97 cities in Greece

“My son’s soul must be elated… I believe we will win. We have ranged the state against us, but we will win.” 

Scenes from the protests

Protests across Greece were mostly peaceful other than incidents of people attacking the police force with rocks and flares, and the authorities responding with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. However, these incidents lasted only for a few minutes.

Much of central Athens was blocked by the demonstration.

Mass protests demand justice for rail crash victims

“Two years after the tragedy, no one has been punished, no one is in prison,” Ilias Papangelis, whose 18-year-old daughter was among those killed, told the crowd of protesters.

“This has been the most mafia-like cover-up operation,” Maria Karystianou, whose daughter died in the crash, told the Athens protesters marching outside the Parliament building Sunday.

Demonstrators held placards and chanted “I have no oxygen” — the chilling last words of Karystianou’s daughter who had called the 112 European emergency number to report the incident. Many in the crowd chanted “Murderers!”

Other banners read: “We don’t forget, we don’t forgive” and “Justice, not forgetting.” Some accused the government of having blood on their hands.

More protests were staged in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Helsinki, Nicosia, Reykjavik and Valetta, Malta.

The deadliest rail disaster in 2023

The disaster happened on February 28, 2023 when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train after both had been mistakenly put on the same track.

Several rumors and conspiracies have emerged since about what led to the scale of the disaster.

Families of the victims and protesters believe the government is hiding evidence and running an opaque investigation while trying to pin the disaster on the stationmaster.

Many believe that some 30 of the 57 victims had survived the initial high-speed crash but died in a fire caused by dangerous chemicals on-board the freight train.

Leaks from a report

Leaks from a report funded by victims’ families seem to corroborate that the cargo train was carrying an illegal load of explosive chemicals.

Greeks still await a trial for the disaster, a process which has been pushed back by a lengthy investigation, delays in reports by technical experts, and even new additions to the witness list from the group of survivors and victims.