Elliniko-Argyroupoli incumbent mayor Christos Kortzidis is facing misdemeanour charges for breach of duty in connection with the tragic accident that occurred last month at a funfair operating in the municipality that resulted in the death of a 13-year-old boy and the serious injury of his 9-year-old sister.

According to the findings of Inspectors of Public Administration, the leasing of the area where the funfair was operating, was illegal and it is noted that no research was submitted regarding the suitability of the place for the operation of the funfair.

The findings lay the blame to the municipality for not forming the competent commission which would check the suitability of the funfair’s facilities and approve the operation licence.

Among other points, the findings indicate:

– No operation and installation license was issued for “HAPPY FUNEPE” by the municipality of Ellinikos – Argyroupolis and therefore the lessee company, installed and operated illegally the funfair

– The space used by the company were 2.450m2 instead over 700m2 which was the area leased by the municipality

– The lessee company did not submit a request for issuing a preliminary approval and installation and operation licence for the funfair despite the fact that the company had already leased the area for this purpose

-The municipality, despite the fact that it received regularly the leasehold, they did not proceed to any actions in order to restore legality and specifically to ask the lessee company to provide all the necessary documents

– Since no operation licence had been issued for this area, no one checked if the area met all the minimum requirements nor if all safety measures were taken

In the meantime, Mr Kortzidis is running in the second round of the local elections on Sunday. During the first round he came first with 33.51%, whereas Mr Yannis Konstantatos came first with 43.71%