Former SYRIZA transport minister seeks lifting of his own immunity over rail crash

Former transport and infrastructure minister Christos Spirtzis, who served under SYRIZA from 2016 to 2019, is demanding that his immunity from prosecution be lifted in relation to the ongoing investigations into the deadly train crash in Tempe last year, which cost the lives of 57 people.

In a letter addressed to House speaker Konstantinos Tassoulas, who has the authority to bring such a motion to Parliament, Spirtzis claimed that he was seeking to address suggestions that oversights during his stewardship of the Transport Ministry may have contributed to the February 28, 2013, collision between a passenger and freight train on the Athens-Thessaloniki line in central Greece.

He said he feels "duty-bound" to "defend my character, overall trajectory and work against any insult and any attempt at defamation."

The former leftist minister referred in particular to...