23 charged over train crash that killed two Cypriots

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.