Almost two dozen suspects had charges brought against them by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) for failing to implement EU regulations and agreements on the Greek railway, where a crash killed dozens of people at the end of February, among them two Cypriot students studying in Greece.

According to an EPPO announcement the charges were brought against a total of 23 suspects – including 18 public officials – for crimes relating to the execution of contracts for restoring remote traffic control and signalling systems on the Greek rail network, co-funded by the EU.

The charges were filed on Monday and were brought against 14 public officials of a subsidiary of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (Ose) called Ergose.

Ergose was responsible for the management of the contracts, while a consortium contractor, formed by two companies, was responsible for the execution of the project.

The train crashed in Tempi, Greece while the two Cypriots onboard were identified as 23-year-old law student Kyprianos Papaioannou from Avgorou and 24-year-old Anastasia Adamidou, a dental school student in Thessaloniki.