Members family members who mourn their people pass one after another from the witness stand describing to the court the circumstances under which the tragedy at Mati occurred.
With tears in their eyes, they talk about their loved ones who are gone and the agony they experienced as they tried to locate and help them.
Stelios and Marika Masha spoke about their parents who were trapped in the flames. The moments when she saw the Eye on fire have been recorded forever in the mind and soul of Marika Masha.
"In Mati, not even a bell rang, they were left and burned alive"
"I saw only blackness and smoke" said the witness, who described with shock how her brother, who managed to reach their house, saw at dawn "two carcasses burning". "There was no notice. No matter how many times I spoke to them. In Kinetta they were taken out, going door to door. In Mati, not even a bell rang, they were left and burned alive," the witness testified, while her brother, crying, spoke of the shocking moment he found their parents charred.
"We had the hope that somehow they made it. We arrived with flashlights it was total darkness. There were no houses, they were flattened. It was rubble. I didn't see a car, I said they were gone. I couldn't imagine what happened. Finally, they called me around 5:00 and said they found them. I went and saw that what I saw and I thought it was wood burning was my parents," he said and then recounted the calvary that followed saying: "I called the police and told them I found them. We were waiting for the ambulance to come. Then they told me the civil defence would come. They finally came at around 3:30 and they gathered ashes. No one alerted them."
"They left us to burn"
Despina Zafeiriou, who lost her beloved husband Stratos on the fateful day, took the witness stand. The woman was moved as she described her agonizing efforts to save her husband when the fire took them by surprise while they were in their car.
"We came to a standstill. I open the door as we are stopped and get out. My husband is stuck on the steering wheel. I pulled him up by his arms, grabbed him by the belt. I knelt down and pulled him up. He couldn't step or turn he was burned..." the charged witness testified and went on to say that a short distance away she found a tire and poured water on him. "He couldn't move his arms or legs. No ambulance came, no plane came by, and we were not notified that there was a fire. Then, at 11 minutes to 11 a friend heard my voice and shouted "don't move, I'm coming". I couldn't move, the fire was burning. They left us to burn. There was nothing. The branches had not been cleared, we repeatedly called the municipality. They took us to Evangelism," he said, adding, "When we were trapped he was unconscious at times. When he regained them he would shout 'go away and let them find you I will die'. "I'm not leaving" I was telling him."
"The fire was coming from two sides and falling from the sky."
The relatives of Dimitris Tournavitis, who died tragically along with his wife, actress Chrysa Spiliotis, testified in court about the panic that prevailed when they realized that they had lost all contact with their people.
"It was the day when the state looked at the tree in Kinetta and the forest of souls in Mati was lost," testified the victim's daughter Aliki, visibly moved. "At 7 o'clock their phones were not working. They were very close to reaching the sea. We declared that they were missing...," testified the witness who noted that she could not believe that her father, who was an athlete, had been hurt. It was the dna test that confirmed the death of her father who , she said, was among those who were trapped at the Fragu estate.
"There was no coordination, no one told them anything. It is unthinkable what happened," she said, while her uncle Konstantinos Tournavitis described how he arrived at the estate.
"I saw my brother's house, completely burnt down. I spotted my brother's vehicle on the Fragou estate. We were not allowed to enter at that time. There were rescuers and police. I thought that my brother, as a keen swimmer, could have escaped," the witness testified, adding, "The next day I spoke with Fragu and his mother. I was told verbatim by his mother: "the fire was coming from two sides and falling from the sky." I found my brother's dog there. His fur was unburnt and mummified. This is what a witness who put my brother in the bag told me."
Dimitris Tournavitis' sister, Maria, excitedly testifying in court, referred to her mother's last dramatic phone call with her son. "He spoke at some point with my mother, he said to her, intensely, 'let us run now to save ourselves'. It was so tense that my mother was terrified , she wanted us to call him every five minutes. From five to seven the phones were cut off," the witness testified.
Source: newsbeast.gr
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