The prosecutor in the appeals court trial for the deadly fire in Mati, which claimed 104 lives and left dozens with severe burns, has recommended the conviction of 12 out of the 21 defendants.

Specifically, prosecutor Stamatia Perimeni proposed the guilt of eight senior officials of the Fire Department leadership, including Matthaiopoulos and Terzoudis, as well as then-Regional Governor of Attica Rena Dourou, General Secretary of Civil Protection Ioannis Kapakis, and Konstantinos Angelopoulos, whose property was the point of origin of the fire.

On the other hand, the prosecutor recommended the acquittal of former mayors and deputy mayors among the accused. Following her statement, tensions flared in the courtroom, with relatives of the victims protesting and accusing the court of preventing them from intervening.

Who the Prosecutor Proposed for Conviction:

The prosecutor recommended that the following individuals be found guilty:

• Sotiris Terzoudis, then Chief of the Fire Department
• Vasilis Matthaiopoulos, then Deputy Chief of the Fire Department
• Ioannis Fostieris, then Commander of the Unified Coordination Center for Firefighting Operations (ESKE)
• Christos Golfinos, Director of the 199 Emergency Call Center
• Filippos Panteleakos, Director of the Civil Protection Operations Center of the Fire Department
• Damianos Papadopoulos, Commander of the Nea Makri Fire Department
• Panagiotopoulos and Charalambos Chionis, Fire Department officers
• Konstantinos Angelopoulos, from whose yard the fire started
• Ioannis Kapakis, then General Secretary of Civil Protection
• Rena Dourou, then Regional Governor of Attica
• Evangelos Bournous, Mayor of Rafina-Pikermi

Who the Prosecutor Recommended for Acquittal:

The prosecutor proposed the acquittal of:

• Christos Lampris, aerial operations coordinator of the Fire Department helicopter unit
• Christos Drosopoulos and Christos Portozoudis, then commanders of the Airborne Firefighting Unit
• Stefanos Kolokouris, then Commander of the 1st EMAK Special Firefighting Unit
• Charalambos Syrogiannis, then Deputy Commander of the Police Airborne Unit
• Ilias Psinakis, then Mayor of Marathon
• Vaios Thanasias, then Deputy Mayor of Marathon
• Antonis Palpatzis, then Deputy Mayor of Marathon
• Dimitrios-Stergios Kapsalis, then Mayor of Penteli

Key Statements by the Prosecutor:

On Sotiris Terzoudis, then Chief of the Fire Department:

“He should have requested assistance from other agencies (civil protection, military, police). He should not have allowed the diversion of aerial firefighting units to the Motor Oil refinery. Given his position, he should have foreseen that this fire would develop into a disaster.”

On Vasilis Matthaiopoulos, then Deputy Chief of Firefighting Operations:

“As an experienced officer, he knew that under those conditions, such a fire would spread and, if not contained immediately, would lead to human losses. He should have demanded updates and ensured proper oversight of aerial firefighting operations. He needed to have his ears and eyes everywhere. He should have anticipated the outcome. They failed to inform the police, saying, ‘We have a major crisis here and need help.’ Instead, when Matthaiopoulos spoke with Chionis, he said, ‘Let’s wait and see.’ He asked if the camps should be evacuated—what about the rest of the people? A miscalculated assessment of the situation, failure to act on available information, and a failure to foresee the disaster, even though he had the capacity to do so.”

On Ioannis Fostieris, then Commander of ESKE (Fire Department’s Coordination Center):

“He had both the right and the duty to coordinate the aerial firefighting efforts. Reports were coming in to ‘199’ from people saying, ‘The fire has reached our homes,’ but these were not evaluated. No order was given to deploy the Chinook helicopters. While, as ESKE commander, he couldn’t directly order the Fire Chief, he had a duty to inform him fully so that appropriate decisions could be made.”

On Christos Golfinos, then Director of the ‘199’ Emergency Call Center:

“He also failed to act on critical information received at the operations center.”

On Ioannis Kapakis, then General Secretary of Civil Protection:

“His negligence in coordinating the response and mobilizing civil protection contributed directly to the catastrophic outcome.”

On Rena Dourou, then Regional Governor of Attica:

“She had the authority to convene the Eastern Attica Civil Protection Coordination Council (SOP), but failed to mobilize the regional civil protection mechanism in time. The emergency situation involved the northern sector and the regional unit of Eastern Attica. The fact that she convened the SOP at 8 PM was too little, too late.”

The Prosecutor’s Overall Conclusion:

In her address, the prosecutor highlighted a massive lack of coordination in the initial response to the fire and stressed that those responsible failed to take crucial decisions—even though they were aware that the flames could threaten a residential area.

She criticized the prioritization of infrastructure over human lives, pointing out that resources were allocated to protect facilities such as the Motor Oil refinery in Kineta instead of evacuating and safeguarding the public in Mati.