Ioannis Fostieris

A court in Athens convicted five former senior firefighting and disaster response officials on Monday, over a 2018 wildfire outside the capital that killed more than 100 people.

The fire that swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, was the deadliest in the country's history. Residents and vacationers, many trapped in their cars, were killed as they tried to escape.

A senior fire service officer has been handed a two-year suspended sentence for submitting false information to the prosecuting authorities during their investigation of the 2018 Mati fire, in which 104 people lost their lives.

The officer, Ioannis Fostieris, was the commander of the fire service's united operations coordination center when the fire happened.

A prosecutor on Tuesday asked for guilty verdicts for nine of the 21 defendants in the trial regarding the response to the deadly fire that ripped through the East Attica town of Mati in July 2018, claiming 104 lives. 

The prosecutor in the ongoing trial regarding the response to the deadly fire that ripped through the East Attica suburb of Mati in July 2018 highlighted what he described as huge deficiencies in firefighting and aerial means, in coordination, prevention and extinguishing measures, holding the defendants responsible for criminal acts and omissions.