Greek ex-minister to be probed over train tragedy

ATHENS

Greece's parliament voted on Thursday to investigate a former transport minister over the country's worst rail tragedy that left 57 dead in 2023.

Government lawmakers approved the probe into the actions of Kostas Karamanlis, who has welcomed the investigation as an opportunity to clear his name.

Fifty-seven people, most of them young students, were killed in February 2023 when a passenger train and a freight train collided in Tempe, central Greece, having been allowed to run on the same track for 12 minutes.

The tragedy sparked sweeping strikes and hundreds of protests in Greece and abroad.

Karamanlis, a member of one of Greece's most influential political families, told lawmakers that he would "never forget" the night of the accident.

He insisted he had done "everything" in his power to improve the state of Greek railways.

"I did not neglect, I did not ignore the railways, quite the opposite," Karamanlis said during the debate that began on June 18.

"I too want justice... I fully support the proposal" to set up a special inquiry committee, he added.

A parliamentary committee will now examine whether Karamanlis should be referred to justice for breach of duty, a misdemeanor-level offense.

Opposition parties, who had sought criminal charges for Karamanlis, accused the conservative government of seeking to "launder" its responsibilities by backing a probe into a lesser charge.

Some parties had sought to implicate Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself.

Taking the floor on June 18, Mitsotakis dismissed as "disgraceful" a proposal by leftist and far-right parties to have him investigated for high treason.