Tempi crash trial in Larissa orders phone forensics and schedules 26 witnesses in fifth week

Fifth week of witness hearings in Larissa

The trial regarding the Tempi railway disaster resumed on Monday, October 5, 2026, entering its fifth consecutive week of victim relatives' testimonies. Hearings take place before the Three-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies in the Greek city of Larissa. Judicial officials scheduled three separate court sessions for the week, with a total of 26 witnesses expected to appear before the presiding judges. The broader phase of relatives' testimonies has proceeded since late summer, with singular exceptions including the early September testimony of a surviving passenger and statements from parents of severely injured victims. The court continues to hear these accounts as it builds the evidentiary record concerning the collision.

Forensic mobile analysis and rejected summons

During the previous week, the three-judge panel issued decisions on a series of evidentiary requests filed by legal teams representing the prosecution and victims' families. The court accepted a formal request to lift privacy protections on the mobile phone of the accused night-shift station master on duty at the time of the crash. Experts from the Forensic Science Division of the Hellenic Police received authorization to conduct laboratory analyses on incoming and outgoing phone calls, SMS and MMS text records, and messaging applications including Viber, with instructions to recover any deleted communication data. In contrast, judges reserved judgment on a request to perform a full forensic examination on the official service mobile phone used by assistant passenger train driver Nikolaos Nalbantis. The court nonetheless ordered the immediate confiscation of Nalbantis's device and instructed law enforcement officers to submit an official seizure report to the case record. The tribunal also rejected requests to summon Greek Members of Parliament Adonis Georgiadis and Dimitris Markopoulos as trial witnesses.

New evidentiary requests submitted by relatives

Following those decisions, families of the victims submitted three new procedural motions for judicial review. The first motion calls for the urgent identification and forensic examination of bone fragments collected from external deposit sites where wreckage and excavated earth from the collision area were transported. A second motion requests the Larissa court to issue witness summons for seven former Secretaries General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport who served across the 2016 to 2023 period. The third petition asks the court to compel the formal submission of all official records and correspondence exchanged between the Greek government and the European Commission on the subject of railway safety and network oversight.

Scope of charges and long-term casualty impact

The trial involves a total of 36 defendants, comprising former and current executive personnel from Greek railway entities including the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), ERGOSE, and operator Hellenic Train. In addition to corporate and regulatory scrutiny, the court reviewed the persistent physical toll of the crash through testimony presented during the previous week by Dionysis Georgiadis. He addressed the bench regarding the condition of his son, Gerasimos-Iasonas Georgiadis, who suffered multiple severe injuries and has remained in a coma for 3.5 years since the night of the train collision. The testimony detailed the young man's ongoing hospitalization and long-term treatment requirements across specialized intensive care units and health facilities.