ATHENS, Greece — The station grasp concerned in Greece’s deadliest prepare crash is about to look earlier than a prosecutor and an inspecting Justice of the Peace Sunday after his deposition was postponed Saturday.

The 59-year-old is accused of inserting two trains working in reverse instructions on the identical observe. At the least 57 folks died when a passenger prepare slammed right into a freight service late Tuesday at Tempe, 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens.

The federal government has blamed human error, and the station grasp faces a number of expenses of negligent murder and bodily hurt, in addition to disrupting transportation. Days of protests in opposition to the perceived lack of security measures in Greece’s rail community have taken place within the wake of the catastrophe.

Stephanos Pantzartzidis, the station grasp’s lawyer, instructed reporters ready outdoors the courthouse Saturday within the central Greek metropolis of Larissa that “essential new proof emerged that drive us to request a postponement” in his consumer’s deposition.

The lawyer did not elaborate. Per Greek regulation, authorities haven’t launched the accused station grasp’s title.

Additionally Saturday, one of many three members of an professional panel named by the federal government to analyze and concern a report on the collision resigned after opposition events and a few media retailers panned his appointment.

Thanasis Ziuliaskopoulos served as chairman and CEO of the nation’s prepare operator, since privatized, from 2010 to 2015 and is at present the chairman of the company in control of privatizing state-owned property.

Funerals for a number of the folks killed within the crash, a lot of them of their teenagers and 20s, came about in northern Greece. The drive of the crash and a ensuing fireplace sophisticated the duty of figuring out the victims, which is being completed by next-of-kin DNA testing.

Some households have but to obtain the stays of their family members. Police mentioned 54 victims have been positively recognized.

Rallies protesting the circumstances that led to the tragedy continued Saturday. A peaceable rally in central Athens organized by the Communist Social gathering’s youth wing drew over a thousand folks.

A rally organized by a rail staff’ union is scheduled for Sunday morning, additionally in Athens. The union, which is organizing rolling labor strikes, has requested members of the general public to participate.

Greek media have revealed damning accounts of mismanagement and infrastructure neglect in Greece’s railways.

A former head of the railway staff’ union, Panayotis Paraskevopoulos, instructed Greek newspaper Kathimerini that the signaling system within the space the place the accident occurred malfunctioned six years in the past and was by no means repaired.

Station masters and prepare drivers talk by way of two-way radio and observe switches are operated manually over components of the primary rail line from the capital Athens to the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki.

The station grasp, who previously labored as a porter on the state-owned Hellenic Railways, or OSE, was transferred to a desk job on the Ministry of Training in 2011, when Greece’s collectors demanded personnel cuts in railways.

He transferred again to the corporate in June 2022 and was appointed station grasp in Larissa, an essential railway hub, in January, after 5 months’ coaching.

Police early Friday searched a rail coordination workplace in Larissa, eradicating proof as a part of an ongoing investigation.

The since privatized prepare and freight operator, renamed Hellenic Practice, is now owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.

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Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece