Guilty verdicts decried as too lenient

The first round of the judicial investigation into the tragedy at Mati in eastern Attica in 2018 concluded on Monday with the court finding only five former high-ranking officials of the state apparatus guilty, mainly from the Fire Service, while acquitting those responsible for Civil Protection and local government officials, in a decision denounced as too lenient by victims' relatives and public opinion. 

The court, which adjudicated the case for more than 19 months into criminal acts and omissions related to their response to the fire, handed the maximum sentence, for misdemeanors, of five years' imprisonment for the convicted former state officials. The sentence was eventually converted to a fine. 

This means that the sentence for the five is equivalent to 38,000 euros each, while the elderly man who set the fire through criminal negligence was sentenced to three...