The Marfin Bank branch on Stadiou Blvd will never open again, stressed businessman and president of the bank Andreas Vgenopoulos in a letter to his employees.
In the same letter the President and managerial advisor of Marfin said that the attack on the bank with Molotov cocktails, which killed three people, was "well organized murderous attack, which would not have ended without a murder" and added that all security measures in the building, where were present.
Moreover, Mr. Vgenopoulos said that mud was thrown against the company that owns the bank through anonymous and apparently existing parties accusations that were spread by the media. He asked for a deep investigation for the active and passive participation of all those connected with the case and refers to "party and syndicate mechanisms”, which maintain the moral perpetrators.
More precisely, Mr. Vgenopoulos noted that "even before we buried our dead colleagues, mud was thrown at us from blogs, which published anonymous letters or signed by fictional counterparts that do not exist. The lies of our anonymous or fictional colleagues were spread without any assessment of whether they exist, quite the contrary - all those who seek to rise against the capital and "bad employers" were enthusiastically adopted as real, all those party members who cried in front of the bank "burned them” and threw stones against those who tried to escape.
In Mr. Vgenopoulos’ letter Marfin bank is mentioned as an example of good relations between employers and the majority of employees and added that "no barriers were raised against any employee who wanted to strike. The fact that some employees were participating in strikes did not affect their promotion, salary increases or bonuses."
For employees in the branch on Stadiou Blvd was noted that they were "visited by representatives of the union on May 4 and 5 in the morning to inform them of the strike." During previous demonstrations Molotov cocktails were thrown at the same branch but with fire extinguishers the fire was put out,” said Mr. Vgenopoulos. "The employees were not concerned about the peaceful demonstration, which was guarded by special police forces, but if they were worried no one would have stopped them from closing the bank and leaving. Marfin Bank Branch on Stadiou Blvd was equipped with 16 fire extinguishers, an emergency exit, windows protected from tampering, but because of the restrictions imposed when a building is declared as a monument under the law, it cannot be turned into a fortress."
At the end of the letter Mr. Vgenopoulos declared that "the bank branch on Stadiou Blvd will never open again and May 5 will become a memorial day for our fallen colleagues whose families have become our family.”
On 5 May, during a major demonstration of private and public employees union, three people lost their lives - two women and one man, who at that time were at their jobs at Marfin Bank on Stadiou Blvd, from where demonstrators were passing by. At 02:00PM leftist outer-party protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the bank, broke the windows and poured petrol inside, which was then set on fire. Three officials failed to reach the windows on the upper floors of the building to take a breath of fresh air and died from the deadly gas, which had filled the bank.