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Tension erupts at Tempi trial as victims' families clash with lawyer
🇬🇷 Greece /Crime & Justice

Tension erupts at Tempi trial as victims' families clash with lawyer

From Ta Nea · () Greek

Translated from Greek, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified In the courts
  • Tension flared during a trial for the Tempi train disaster between victims' families and their lawyer, Zoi Konstantopoulou.
  • The judge called for self-restraint from all parties involved in the proceedings.
  • The incident occurred during discussions about the presence of defendants and audiovisual coverage of the trial.

The trial for the deadly Tempi train disaster saw a heated exchange between victims' families and their lawyer, Zoi Konstantopoulou. The confrontation led the court's president to call for calm and self-restraint from everyone involved.

The court will not pretend to understand the pain of the relatives.

— Court PresidentAddressing the courtroom after the outburst, the president acknowledged the families' grief while stressing the need for a calm trial process.

The tension arose as Konstantopoulou presented arguments regarding the defendants' physical presence in court and the request for audiovisual coverage of the proceedings. A father of one of the 57 victims reacted strongly to a mention of the Anubis Coldcase K9 Team's role in identifying biological material, leading to a heated dialogue.

I want to apologize to everyone for my outburst.

— Christos Vlachos (father of a victim)Following the judge's call for calm and the court's resumption, the father apologized for his earlier reaction.

Following a brief suspension, the court president urged participants to maintain composure, acknowledging the profound pain of the victims' families but emphasizing the need for a calm process to uncover the truth. The father of the victim later apologized for his outburst. Konstantopoulou suggested that such divisions among families could serve those seeking to cover up the case.

The division of the relatives serves those who wish and have been trying from the beginning to cover up the case.

— Zoi Konstantopoulou (lawyer for victims' families)Konstantopoulou commented on the incident, suggesting that internal conflict among the families could be detrimental to uncovering the truth.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Ta Nea in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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