The former regional governor in central Greece and three other officials have been handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence over the handling of the deadly 2020 floods.
In 2020, Cyclone Ianos swept through central Greece, flooding cities and highways in Thessaly and turned agricultural land into mud lakes near the hardest-hit cities of Karditsa and Farsala. It also killed three people.
According to Reuters, the court on Thursday found former regional governor Costas Agorastos, a former deputy governor and two former directors of technical projects guilty of omissions that could have prevented the flooding. All have denied any wrongdoing.
Outside the court Agorastos said he plans to appeal the ruling and that he could not have stopped a flood, which occurs once in a thousand years.
All were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter charges related to the deaths but lawyers representing the victims said they would take legal steps to overturn that decision.
“We were really disappointed with the ruling,” Vassiliki Soufla, lawyer of one of the victims said.
“The death of those people was not an accident, was not a bad moment. It was a result of the collective failure of the state mechanism.”
Last year saw a second major flood in three years hit Thessaly – Storm Daniel.
The flooding was Greece’s worst on record, killing 16 people and sweeping away agricultural lands, roads and railways.
Now a legal investigation is underway into whether any crimes were committed by intention or negligence that worsened the impact of last year’s flooding.
