Families cramming into a Greek courtroom for the trial into the country’s deadliest train crash faced frustration as access was restricted and proceedings became chaotic, according to BBC.

A Courtroom Overwhelmed by Emotion

The trial of those responsible for the February 2023 train crash near Tempi, which killed 57 people, resumed on Wednesday, but the families of the victims again struggled to gain entry to the courtroom in the central town of Larisa.

Many relatives were unable to get into the courtroom last week, and the situation was little different when it resumed on Wednesday, as Police officers allowed in only participants who were legally scheduled to attend the proceedings.

Some relatives complained that two rows of seats had been taken up by police, while others said they still could not witness proceedings clearly enough. Defence lawyer Zoe Konstantopoulou appealed for the proceedings to be filmed as access for families had been restricted.

The February 2023 disaster is widely known in Greece as the “Tempi crime” – with many arguing it encapsulates negligence and corruption at the heart of the state.

A Tragedy of Negligence

The crash occurred when an intercity train from Athens to Thessaloniki smashed head-on into a goods train on the same line near Tempi, killing 57 people, most of whom were students.

Some of the victims are thought to have burnt to death after surviving the initial collision. Among those killed was 20-year-old Anastasia Plakias, a student at the University of Thessaloniki, who was traveling back to lectures in the northern city after spending a public holiday with her family.

In the weeks after the crash. Her grieving father Dimitris told the BBC he would always be proud of his daughter who “only had love to give”. He said: “We relatives call it a state assassination of our children, and all the people who were aboard that train… in which European country could this be possible?”

Anastasia had been traveling with her 20-year-old twin cousins, Thomi and Chrysa, who were also killed, but Thirty-three of the defendants face up to life in prison if convicted.

A System Under Scrutiny

The railway network had not made use of EU funding intended to improve safety. The head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Laura Kovesi, later said the collision could have been avoided if the money had been spent on modernising the signalling system in time.

Trade unions in Greece had warned that some sort of catastrophe on the railway network was waiting to happen. To the amazement of some. The crash site was bulldozed within days, which experts say destroyed potentially key evidence.

This fuelled claims of a cover-up, which authorities have denied — Despite the public outcry, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was re-elected soon after the disaster and has survived two related no-confidence votes in parliament.

Mitsotakis apologised to the families of the victims in the days after the crash and has asked repeatedly for public patience so that justice can take its course. To the frustration of many campaigners, no politician is among those on trial.

The case is taking place in a remodelled conference hall that cost hundreds of thousands of euros and Mitsotakis has said it is “among the most functional and modern in Europe”.

More than 60. 000 pages on evidence is to be presented and 200 lawyers are involved in the case, but proceedings descended into chaos on 23 March when the courtroom became overcrowded. Survivors of the disaster and family members of the deceased were forced to sit in the seats of the accused, most of whom were absent.

Lawyers argued health and safety regulations were being violated. Maria Karystianou. Who lost her 19-year-old daughter Marthi, said relatives had been “packed like sardines” and the spectacle was “an absolute disgrace”.