“I didn’t sign up at the TEE to avoid paying contributions to TSMEDE,” said technical adviser to families of victims of the tragedy in Tempi Kostas Lakafosis, who responded to those who accuse him of not having the right to sign as an engineer.

Speaking on Friday (4/4) to Thessaloniki’s Status FM 107.7 radio station and journalists Dimitris Venieri and Virginia Dimaresi, he said that “there is no question of formal qualifications, anyone who signs a technical report is evaluated“.

He also stressed that “I have been paid my whole life as an engineer. It’s one thing to do studies for buildings or public works and another thing to do engineering consulting,” and took jabs at those who question his professional competence.

He revealed he is insured with EDOEP, the press workers’ fund, and has never started as an engineer. However, he explained that many engineers make such a choice, even university professors, and that there are five members on the NEDAPO (Independent Family Fact-Finding Committee) committee and there are engineer signatures.

He said he had not received any request asking for his formal qualifications, a request he would file as previously announced by lawyer Leonidas Koubouras.

The appeal to victims’ relatives

Mr. Lakafosis appealed to any relatives of Tempi victims who are cooperating with him to speak publicly and whether he has asked them for 20% of the compensation. “I appeal. Those relatives of victims who hear this from Thessaloniki should call your call center and say ‘yes, sir, Lakafosis asked me for 20%,'” he said.

He added: “As long as they are listening to us, let the people involved in the case come out and tell you anonymously, I don’t want someone to come out with his name but at least one relative to come out and say ‘yes guys that’s how it is, we will only get half and the lawyers and experts will eat it up. Mr. Lakafosis has asked us for so much advance,” he said.

The findings “are copy-paste”

Mr. Lakafosis once again rebutted those who criticize him and stated with absolute certainty that the explosion was not caused by silicone oil.

He referred at length to all the findings and the difficulty in identifying the exact factor that caused the tragedy. In fact, for those findings that do not mention an illegal cargo he suggested that they may even be the result of copying. “They have copied the appointed experts because, you know, instead of doing work, it’s easier for a technical consultant to pick up and copy paste something ready-made and say since this is what the appointees say, ‘this is what we’re going to agree to, we’re moving on,'” he said.

Costas Lakafosis said he never changed the conclusion and it will be judged in court based on that and not on what he said on a TV show. “Our final conclusion has been filed on August 24 and we have not changed a word. We have not taken anything back. That is what we will go to trial.”

“Ghent is not my partner. Where has the discussion of a Ghent finding come from? Did I ever come out and say that there is a Gandhi conclusion?”

Regarding the EODASAM conclusion and that it was based on the findings of the EDAPO, Costas Lakafosis noted that all parties involved contributed evidence at the invitation of the committee.

“EODASAM got important data from us not so much on the pyrosphere. The problem was not the pyrosphere. The problem, the huge problem, in the investigation and the EODASAM investigation, and something that will come up in court, is that there are huge gaps in the investigation that was not done, so there is no mapping of the victims, no record of what happened after the first few minutes, after the collision, and all of that is nowhere in the record except from us, if and when we put it in,”
he said.

He further explained that “EODASAM took evidence from OSE, from Hellenic Train, from whoever else had input, they took it from me. He put it all down on a table, evaluated it and picked what is beneficial and what is not.”