The station grasp concerned in Greece’s deadliest practice crash will seem earlier than a prosecutor and an inspecting Justice of the Peace on Sunday after his deposition was postponed on Saturday.

The station grasp, 59, is accused of inserting two trains working in reverse instructions on the identical monitor.

At least 57 individuals died when a passenger practice slammed right into a freight service late Tuesday at Tempe, 235 miles north of Athens.

The authorities has blamed human error, and the station grasp faces expenses of negligent murder and bodily hurt, in addition to disrupting transportation.

Stephanos Pantzartzidis, the station grasp’s lawyer, informed reporters ready exterior the court docket on Saturday within the central Greek metropolis of Larissa that “very important new evidence emerged that force us to request a postponement” in his consumer’s deposition, or giving of sworn proof.

Authorities haven’t launched the accused station grasp’s identify.

Also on Saturday, one of many three members of an professional panel named by the federal government to research and subject a report on the collision resigned after opposition events and a few media retailers criticised his appointment.

Funerals for among the individuals killed within the crash, lots of them of their teenagers and 20s, occurred in northern Greece.

The drive of the crash and a ensuing fireplace difficult the duty of figuring out the victims, which is being accomplished by next-of-kin DNA testing.

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

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

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

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

The station grasp, who previously labored as a porter on the state-owned Hellenic Railways, was transferred to a desk job on the ministry of schooling 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 vital railway hub, in January, after 5 months coaching.

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

The since privatised practice and freight operator, renamed Hellenic Train, is now owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.