Sentences of up to 340 years in prison were imposed on the 10 convicted for the Mati fire, with 4 individuals—Sotiris Terzoudis, former head of the Fire Service; Vasilis Matheopoulos, former deputy head; Ioannis Fostieris, former head of the National Operations Centre (ESKE); and Ioannis Kapakis, former General Secretary of Civil Protection—sentenced to prison to serve 5 years.
The court ruled that their sentences could not be suspended or converted into fines, as they were considered suspects for committing further offenses.
“I propose this with the belief that none of them has acknowledged, even minimally, the responsibility for this act and the consequences of their omissions on the citizens they were tasked with protecting,” said the prosecutor during her proposal.
In the first-instance ruling, 6 of the 21 were found guilty and received lesser, convertible sentences, and all were released.
For the remaining 6—including Philippou Panteliakos, former director of the Civil Protection Operations Center; Damianos Papadopoulos, former head of the New Makri Fire Station; Nikos Panagiotopoulos, former head of the Athens Fire Services; Charalambos Chionis, former head of the Eastern Attica Fire Services; and Konstantinos Angelopoulos, the resident who set the fire—it was decided their sentences would be converted into fines (€10/day).
On Wednesday morning, the Three-Member Court of Appeals for Misdemeanors did not recognize any mitigating factors for the 10 convicted for the deadly 2018 Mati fire, which claimed the lives of 104 people and left 57 with serious burns.
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