Tempe train crash trial advances as translations begin for Italian defendants

[AP]

The trial for the Tempe train crash, which killed 57 people, is moving guardant arsenic the authorities statesman translating cardinal lawsuit documents so that the two Italian defendants tin work them.

More than 30 translators person been recruited to translate astir 1,500 pages, including the summons and authoritative Lambros Tsogas’ proposal, so that they tin beryllium served successful Italian to the two Hellenic Train executives.

Some of the 200 GB lawsuit record had already been translated during the investigation. The total fig of defendants present stands astatine 36, down from 43, pursuing the separation of a lawsuit concerning the alleged alteration of the clang scene.

The archetypal of the accused is the 60-year-old Larissa stationmaster, who allegedly sent the train onto the wrong track. He will beryllium tried alongside two different stationmasters, the caput of the Larissa OSE Inspection Department and executives from Hellenic Railways and ERGOSE. Charges see the lack of information systems and nonaccomplishment to uphold a distant train absorption contract.

Senior officials from the Infrastructure Ministry and the Railway Regulatory Authority are besides facing trial. Thirty-three of the 36 defendants are charged with unsafe interference with nationalist transportation, which carries a imaginable beingness sentence. Misdemeanour charges see negligent homicide, bodily harm and breach of duty.

The lawsuit will beryllium heard by a Three-Member Criminal Appeals Court. Nearly 250 lawyers are involved, and up to 250 witnesses are expected to springiness evidence, including 150 who person already been examined. The trial will beryllium held astatine the Gaiopolis league centre astatine the University of Thessaly.