Floridis and Velopoulos clash in parliament over Tempi bones and fraud claims

A clash over the Tempi case in parliament

Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis and Kyriakos Velopoulos, leader of Elliniki Lysi, clashed in the Greek parliament on 15 October during the plenary debate on a justice ministry bill creating a Code for Alternative Dispute Resolution and other provisions. The exchange centred on the Tempi railway tragedy, while the trial over the crash is in progress. Velopoulos criticised the government's handling of the case and attacked Floridis personally. Floridis replied that the conspiracy theories had been raised before and had collapsed, and he said Velopoulos was the originator of them.

The bone photographs

Velopoulos said that about 200 bones found in the rubble at Koulouri and Pantremeno were kept in boxes beside the office of investigating judge Sotiris Bakaimis. He carried photographs of the remains to the government benches and said he would hand them over to the minister. According to him, one of the findings was a hand holding a burned mobile phone, and he referred to the loss of a friend in the tragedy. He presented the material as evidence of what he called rubble clearing at a crime scene. According to To Vima, he also interjected off-microphone with the words "You should be ashamed".

Floridis on the three-wagon and xylol claims

Floridis said the claims about three missing wagons, 53 missing passengers and xylol had collapsed. He cited expert reports from Greek and foreign polytechnic schools, which he said showed that the xylol fraud never existed. In his summary, he said there had been fraud but no xylol at all. He described the whole campaign as a deception from beginning to end.

It was a fraud from start to finish.

Floridis also alleged a conspiracy with support from a foreign country, involving 50,000 fake accounts. He said that after the centres producing those accounts were hit, the backing of far-right parties across Europe stopped. He added that the campaign had driven millions of people onto the streets, believing the government was trying to cover something up.

The evidence question and the court

Floridis said that because the photographs were said to come from the investigating judge's office, they were material from the investigation. He asked how the trial had been obstructed by that material and invited Velopoulos to submit to the justice system any evidence he considered important. He also asked why Velopoulos did not appear in court to present it. Alexandros Kazamias, an MP for Plefsi Eleftherias, joined the debate and said it was authoritarian to treat citizens' Tempi mobilisations as incited. Floridis stated that the trial had started and was continuing, and that the evidence would come to light and the courts would decide.

Velopoulos's reply

Velopoulos answered by asking why Russia was being implicated without reason. In his closing reply he said the minister should resign, and he called Floridis a political fraudster in the same breath. He also said history would record Floridis as a minister who had served in Greece.

Today you behaved like a common political fraudster. You should have resigned over what you are saying now.

The exchange ended without any change in the bill, and the articles report no vote or ruling arising from the clash. The trial over the Tempi crash remains the forum where Floridis said the evidence would be assessed.