Panos Routsis continued his testimony at the Tempi trial, which had been adjourned on October 7 when he felt unwell.
Saying, “I will not stop fighting for my child because I want us to finally learn the truth at some point,” Mr. Routsis described a meeting in which, as he testified, he was asked to stop pursuing the Tempi case and was warned to be careful.
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“I couldn’t take it anymore; I’m sorry for what happened. I want to resume my hunger strike. Because of that, I’ve been having problems with my blood pressure and my heart. Back then, they took me to the hospital three times; I’d had a mini-stroke. I won’t stop fighting for my child because I want us to finally learn the truth at some point. “I’ll fight until the very end,” Panos Routsis began his testimony.
“I want to focus on the moment when my child called me and told me he’d be late. I want to focus on the fire I saw when I arrived. We’ve heard many theories about the cause of the fire. If that fire hadn’t been there, many children would have survived that night. We want to know what caused that fireball. “Passengers told me that the smell inside the train was so strong they couldn’t breathe; they asked me to look into it. There were no people asking for help afterward,” he continued.
He also stated that “it was late one night when a couple came in. The girl approached me first to speak with me. She told me, ‘This is my boyfriend; he’s a firefighter, and he couldn’t speak before, but now he wants to.’ ‘I can’t testify. But something definitely happened with the train. The military has no business getting involved in accidents like this,” she told me. She didn’t want to give his name or testify because she was afraid.”
Speaking about the “mushroom cloud” that appeared after the collision of the two trains, Mr. Ruchi said, “There’s no way it could create such a fireball—that’s what the train engineers told me. This train business has been going on for years right under our noses. Cargo that’s loaded without any paperwork, without anything.”
He then told the court about an incident in which he received a threat. As he said, “I got a call from an unknown number. I answered, and they told me they had some evidence related to the case. ‘Come to such-and-such a location so we can give it to you.’ I went to the location. It was an SUV with tinted windows. I saw some inflatable objects. They took my cell phone, opened the door, and I got in. There was a guy in the car. ‘There’s a lot of money in this bag—a lot of money. All we want is for you to get rid of Konstantopoulou and stop meddling,” they told me. I asked them, “What if I don’t? “Let me think about it,” and they told me, “Be careful,” and I left. I told Ms. Konstantopoulou that I was afraid and wanted protection. I asked for protection, but I didn’t… I didn’t report the incident to the authorities. This happened that same year, two or three months after the hunger strike, sometime in 2025. The truth is, I was afraid.”
“I’m not going to stay silent, and I continued to do what I had to do. The phone number they called me from wasn’t working when I called back. The call just vanished, as if it had never happened,” added Mr. Rucci.
“We’re searching for the truth. As relatives, we need to find out what happened that night. Why was there such an effort to cover it up? They should have investigated and collected the evidence that was there. Investigate those who gave the order to fill in the site,” Panos Routsis added.
When the presiding judge remarked, “We’re only looking at the period up to the day of the accident,” Mr. Routsis said: “As for the exhumations, I am absolutely certain that there are other remains in the same spot where my child is buried. The report the medical examiners gave us cannot possibly be the same for all the children. They should give us the right to appoint technical consultants. A year has passed, and they’re still stringing us along. We can’t do this on our own. We’re now facing financial difficulties. No one has come forward to apologize. And that hurts. They sued us because we in Larissa obstructed the proceedings. They’re charging us with a felony. Why are they doing this to us to stop us? We’re looking for the truth. If we hadn’t insisted, these videos wouldn’t exist.”
Source: Proto Thema
