Decision of the State Council requires that the Municipality Eastern Attica pays monetary compensation to the relatives of the people killed in the collapse of the factory Ricomex. The plant was destroyed during the great earthquake in Athens on September 7, 1999, and among the ruins 39 people who at that time were working left their last breath there.
The latest ruling of the court acknowledged that the Municipality of East Attica has full responsibility as during the construction of the plant its employees have not done the necessary checks on the sustainability of the building. According to the ruling of the Court the municipality is obliged to pay 150,000 euro to the parents of one of the victims of Ricomex and another 50,000 euro to the victim's brother.
According to relatives of people killed the factory collapse was the result of illegal actions and omissions of employees of the Office of uranisation in the Aharnon region who have not complied with the law. On the other part, the municipality transferred the responsibility entirely on the private company that has designed Ricomex, but the Council of State rejected its claim as unfounded.
In 2000 was released the report of the experts from the Ministry of Infrastructure at that time according to which the factory collapsed because of defects and deficiencies in construction and hastily made extensions. In the report of the experts who have studied the case for months, they refer to at least 11 criminal errors, including the fact that the plant was not built according to drawings and projects that have received permits.
The area on which the building was built was three times bigger than the area for which they had a building permit. Two underground floors were built illegally. A garret rooms on the ground floor was added. Warehouses were built on an area of 150 acres, which were not included in the permit for construction and the real capacity of the entire building was twice as bigger than what was provided for it to carry.
But the main reason that causes the collapse of the second floor is that the allowed weight of the machines which were to be placed was 350 kilograms per square meter, and plant managers have placed machines and other appliances with a total weight of 1500 kg per square meters.
Initially, back in the year 2000 before the court were called to testify the members of the board of directors of the Ricomex plant, but also the construction engineers and building contractors of the building who were then charged with premeditated murder committed by fraud. In 2004 the court ordered that the plant managers and engineers, who knew of the defects of the building will have to pay the sum of 2 million euro to the relatives of five of the victims of Ricomex and one employee who has remained under the ruins for more than 40 hours. Relatives of the remaining 33 people died waive to seek their rights in the court.
Then the company's managers say they are unable to pay benefits because the company will be forced to go into bankruptcy. During the same year the defense of those held liable for the collapse of the factory manages to mitigate their indictment to manslaughter and the architects and engineers of the building were sentenced to imprisonment of five years, who were subsequently left free.
In materials in.gr
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