The Supreme Court decided on Tuesday by majority the retrial of the Helios case, adopting the appeal filed by the Attorney General against the ruling of the Assize Court.
The decision for a retrial of the case with a different composition of the Assize Court was taken with six judges voting in favour, two voting against and one supporting a different view.
On August 14, 2005, 121 people were killed when an Helios Boeing 737 crashed into the mountainside of Grammatiko, north of the Greek capital, on its way to Prague. Most victims were holidaymakers from Cyprus. Five persons faced charges of manslaughter and causing the death of all 121 people on board by reckless, dangerous and careless action.
In its ruling, the Assize Court had said there was no evidence linking the five accused, namely the company as a legal person, Executive President Andreas Drakos, Managing Director Demetris Pantazis, Flight Operations Director Andreas Kikkides, and Chief Pilot Ianko Stoimenov, to the cockpit crew.
The Supreme Court said the Assize Court had reached a fundamentally wrong decision, had completely misconceived things and, by misinterpreting the indictment, had reached a conclusion that was not matched by either the findings of the indictment or the presentation of the case concerning the liability attributed to the defendants.
The judges said in their decision there was no doubt as to the error of the Assize Court and thus a retrial by another Assize Court was justified.