Greece rail crash probe seeks justice

Three railway employees are to be charged with criminal charges in connection with the train crash last week, Greece's worst ever, which left 57 dead and scores injured.

The charges of the head-on collision of two locomotives in Tempe pressed as outraged by the tragedy showed little sign of abating.

Marching through Athens on Thursday, student protesters screamed murderers as they directed their fury at state officials blamed for an accident they believe could have been avoided had the nation s rail network not been so neglected. Most of the victims were young, with at least a third of them enrolled at university.

Nine days after a passenger train with 350 on board rammed into an oncoming freight train with 350 on board, Greeks are eager to see justice.

Magistrates overseeing an investigation into the cause of the crash said two of the officials charged on Thursday were station masters. Both had ended their shifts early on the night of the incident, despite traffic being unusually heavy after a long holiday weekend. A supervisor accused of placing an inexperienced stationmaster on duty at the time of the crash was also indicted.

All three will stand trial for a wide variety of offenses from involuntary manslaughter to mass bodily harm acts punishable with life in prison if they are found guilty. On Sunday, similar charges were levelled against the station master who is accused of making the fatal point switch that put the two trains on the same track. Audio extracts published by the Greek media show the confusion of 59 year-olds as concerned colleagues call to ask what happened immediately after the collision.

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held his first cabinet meeting since a period of national mourning and promised absolute transparency as the inquiry into the tragedy intensified. The centre-right leader, who has a four-year term in office ends in July, has faced a backlash due to revelations about the lack of proper safeguards, including a functioning signal system.

Tens of thousands of people from Evros in the north to Crete in the south took to the streets on Wednesday as the country was brought to a halt by a 24 hour general strike in an outburst of anger not seen since the anti-austerity rallies of the debt crisis.

As many as 60,000 people participated in the protests called by labour unions and student groups in Athens and Thessaloniki alone, according to the police.

Mass demonstrations are scheduled to continue, increasing the pressure on Mitsotakis whose reputation has already been hit by an eavesdropping scandal amid accusations that Greece has backslid on civil liberties, including press freedom, under his watch.

In the face of the uproar, the general elections that were to take place in April have been rescheduled for May. The way he manages a crisis will depend on how much trust he has in his credibility.

In a televised address, the prime minister pledged to move heaven and earth to make sure the rail system is modernised in the coming months with automated safety systems.