With Panos Rouchi now on the 10th day of his hunger strike, 80 relatives of victims of the Tempi train tragedy have signed a petition calling for exhumations to be approved. The petition was addressed to the Prime Minister of Greece, the President of Parliament, and both the Prosecutor and President of the Supreme Court.

The petition, signed by hunger striker Panos Rouchi and Maria Karystianou, reads in part:

“We issue this extra-judicial declaration and complaint, calling on the authorities to approve the exhumation of the Tempi victims in the presence of independent experts and representatives of both domestic and international laboratories, with the participation of technical advisors representing the victims’ families.

We denounce the refusal to provide legal protection and the refusal—through acts and omissions—of those directly or indirectly responsible to respect the sacred right of parents to exhume their children. This would allow proper medical and anthropological examinations to identify the chemical substance that burned our loved ones and caused their deaths.

We authorize the above-ordered exhumation investigation to establish the truth and determine the composition of the unknown fuel, as explicitly noted in the 27.02.2025 EODASAM report.”

What the law says about extra-judicial petitions

According to court reporter Ioanna Mandrou (MEGA, Live News), an out-of-court petition is not legally considered a formal request for exhumation. She explained that previous requests for exhumations in the Tempi case had already been submitted by other families during the investigative phase. One was rejected until expert reports were completed; the other was also dismissed after investigators concluded that the train had not been carrying hazardous material.

Mandrou stressed that even if a new exhumation were granted, it would not automatically reopen the investigation.

Supreme Court response

The leadership of the Supreme Court has effectively closed the matter, stating that the Tempi investigation has ended and cannot be reopened. During the Justice Conference, Supreme Court President Anastasia Papadopoulou and Prosecutor Konstantinos Tzavellas responded to questions about Rouchi’s request. Both made clear that an exhumation cannot currently be ordered, though the final decision rests with the President of the Larissa Appeals Court.

Papadopoulou noted:

“The request concerns examination of the victims’ remains for xylene and other substances. These requests were already made and answered during the investigation. We cannot revisit them.”

She added that while families have not lost any legal rights, reopening the investigation is no longer possible.

Tzavellas emphasized that lawyers cannot pressure prosecutors to act outside the law. He clarified that while an exhumation could theoretically be requested through administrative channels (e.g., via the municipality responsible for the cemetery), the judicial case itself is procedurally closed.

Families’ lawyer responds

Leonidas Koubouras, legal representative of several victims’ families, told Status FM (Thessaloniki) that all bodies had been identified beyond doubt through DNA analysis and other official reports. He argued that raising doubts about identification misleads the public and distracts from the real issues in the case.

Symbolic student visit

On Tuesday, students from the Athens Art School and the 2nd Standard Lyceum visited Panos Rouchi at Syntagma Square, where he continues his hunger strike. They presented him with a drawing of his son, lost in the Tempi tragedy, as a gesture of solidarity and support for his cause.