The Larissa Misdemeanours Council accepted the presiding judge’s declaration of recusal, submitted this afternoon in the trial concerning the “missing” footage of the commercial train. This means that a different judge must take over the bench and the trial will have to restart from the beginning.

This development comes after 19 court sessions, during which the first three witnesses had already testified.

The judge’s recusal followed tension earlier in the courtroom, involving an attack by the counsel for the support of the charges, Zoë Konstantopoulou, against the presiding judge. The lawyer reportedly described the judge as “dishonourable” and accused her of deceiving the court by changing her decision after alleged instructions from above, regarding the provision of copies of evidence to the victims’ relatives.

“I have received many insults; I will submit a declaration of recusal,” the judge replied, leaving the bench in distress.

No videos were submitted to investigating magistrate Bakaimis

It is recalled that the trial over the “missing” videos concerns the failure to submit to investigating magistrate Sotiris Bakaimis the footage from the Thessaloniki Freight Station, from where the commercial train departed on the night of February 28, 2023. The case is being heard before the Single-Member Misdemeanours Court of Larissa.

On the defendants’ bench sit the then president of OSE, the then CEO, and a senior executive of “Interstar Security,” the company responsible for railway video surveillance. Depending on the case, they face charges including misappropriation of documents, incitement to commit that act, and disobedience.