Sentencing of Mati defendants was based on old and more favorable Criminal Code, Justice Min Floridis says

The 6 defendants found guilty of manslaughter over the fires at Mati in July 2018 and set free with fines were tried on the basis of older and more lenient regulations of the Criminal Code, Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis said on Monday.

Speaking to national broadcaster ERT and journalist Giorgos Kouvaras, the justice minister said that if the new Criminal Code that was voted recently in parliament

were in effect at the trial, the foreseen sentences would be 10 to 20 years.

Four of the six defendants were given sentences of 111 years, of which jail time was set at 5 years each. The court ruled that the sentences could be paid off at around 40,000 euros each, creating an uproar in the court when victims' families heard it.

Following Monday's decision of the three-judge misdemeanor court of Athens, Floridis said that "based on legislation that was formulated in 2019, a year after this horrible tragedy, these regulations were more lenient for the defendants, and the court applied those regulations."

The fire at Mati claimed 104 lives and left many injured.

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