Global forum doubts the fairness of the Greek court

26 February 2013 / 15:02:10 GRReporter

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Maria S. Topalova

    The Global Dialogue Forum on Civil Aviation supports the Bulgarian pilot Ianko Stoimenov, who was found guilty by two instances of the Greek court as regards the crash of Boeing 737-300 of the Cyprus company Helios Airways, which crashed near Athens on 14 August 2005. The tragedy killed all 121 people on board. The special declaration the forum adopted at a meeting held recently in Geneva doubts the honesty and fairness of the Greek court and defines the criminalization of the plane crash as "brutal".
    "The charges against Captain Ianko Stoimenov are based on an investigation report, which is grossly incorrect. Solid evidence disproving the adopted accident scenario and submitted by top leading experts in accident investigation is being ignored.
We are also very concerned by the fact that the two decisions of the First Instance Court and the Court of Appeal show complete misunderstanding of the legal frame defining airline operation and flight crew licensing," states the declaration.
    It is supported by many other organizations in the field of aviation: the International Transport Federation (ITF), the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA), the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA), the International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA).
    President Nico Voorbach, Secretary General Philip von Shöppenthau and Technical Director Burkhart Kaumans of the European Cockpit Association have sent a letter to George Basoulis, the chairman of the Greek committee to investigate air accidents, in which they insist on a re-investigation of the tragic accident of 14 August 2005. "We are very concerned that a report by the committee on the investigation of flight safety is being used as evidence by a criminal court, which is in contradiction with the spirit of the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO," reads the document. The European Cockpit Association represents over 38 thousand professional pilots across Europe, including Greece.
    Ianko Stoimenov was accused by the Greek court that in his capacity as a chief pilot for Helios Airways he had allowed incompetent pilots to fly the fatal plane. A review of the files of the two dead pilots, however, makes it clear that they had regularly passed controlling tests that many internationally recognized instructors evaluated. However, this was not enough for either the First Instance Court or the Court of Appeal and they found Stoimenov guilty. The sentence in the first instance was 123 years in prison, which the Court of Appeal replaced with a monetary compensation of 76 thousand euro.
    The Court of Appeal in Athens had announced the sentence on 7 February and the decision was delivered in writing to the claimant last week. It is 213 pages but it does not contain the pleading of prosecutor Pagona Zaka and of defender Stelios Voudouris. The court decision itself available from pages 133 to 183 of the document is hand written (see the illustration).

And it is a trial, in which there are two foreigners among the defendants – a Bulgarian and a British citizen, and an official document bearing the official stamps - apostilles of the Greek state (as seen in the illustration below).

Based on this handwritten document, the defence has 20 days to decide to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Greece Areos Pagos.
Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of Cyprus announced some days ago that he declined the prosecution against the accused, citing the fact that the same person could not be convicted twice for the same act. This is the second sign (after the acquittal of 2011) of common sense in Cyprus in connection with the "Helios" case. In announcing the decision of the Supreme Court in Nicosia after the appeal of the acquittal, the chairman himself expressed the concern that a re-trial with a new panel of judges contradicted the Constitution of the Mediterranean island.