The Galician public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Monday that it would appeal the conviction for the Angrois train accident, in which the driver and the former ADIF road safety director were sentenced to two and a half years in prison. prison for 80 homicides committed due to professional misconduct. neglect.
After several weeks of study of the text and the possibility, sources from the prosecution confirmed this Monday that they would present the appeal next week, the deadline set by the judge for this approach. The same sources indicated that “the details of the appeal, contesting part of the judicial resolution, in accordance with the criteria maintained by the Santiago Region Public Prosecutor’s Office, will be given as soon as it is presented to the court, which will take place within a reasonable time. a few days.”
Everything seems to indicate that in its appeal, the public prosecutor will demand the exoneration of the man who was Adif’s security director at the time of the incident, in accordance with the criteria used by the prosecutor during the trial, since he withdrew the charge against him. in the final conclusions, attributing the accident solely to the driver.
The sentence, more than 500 pages long, was handed down at the end of July, just after 11 years of drama. Initially, the judge granted 10 working days to appeal, which ended on September 10. However, the volume of clarifications requested and the complexity of the file have forced this deadline to be extended, which expires next week. Fernández Currás considered it proven in the judgment that the two defendants, the train driver and the former head of security of Adif, are responsible for 79 crimes of homicide and 143 of injuries due to serious recklessness.
Conclusions of the prosecution
Although the arguments that the prosecution will present in its appeal have not yet been made public, we know the arguments that Mario Piñeiro – then prosecutor of the case that his partner Antonio Roma now has in his hands – expressed in his final conclusions. to withdraw the accusation from the head of Adif security. More precisely, Piñeiro considered at the end of the trial that, “in his capacity as director of security, he did not violate the duty incumbent on him” and acted “in accordance with the procedures included in the management system” of the Adif, approved by the national government. authority and with a methodology “based on European regulations”.
Thus, according to the final report of the public prosecutor’s office, the Orense-Santiago high-speed line, on which an Alvia train derailed in a section without an ‘ERTMS’ safety system due to a change of project, “was designed in accordance with the “technical standards” and in accordance with the “practical codes” of Adif The prosecutor also considered that “a risk analysis was carried out, requiring a file analyzing the safety” of the line and that “the risks were judged. tolerable.”
He in fact took up the arguments of the prosecution by emphasizing that “on other lines, the ‘Asfa’ system circulates at 200 km/h (…) and that the source of the risk, the significant change in speed , was not identified as a risk factor before this accident, then 400 other points were identified along the entire general network line.
Criticism of victims
For its part, the Victims’ Platform Alvia 04155 criticized this decision which, according to it, adds “more pain and frustration” to the people concerned who, however, have confidence in the solidity of the judgment. This was stated by the president of the platform, Jesús Domínguez, in statements to Europa Press, which undermined the role that the prosecution plays in this matter, both due to the “oscillations” of its position and because, in his own words, “defending the interests of the powerful”.
“Adif is already sufficiently defended by his defense,” said Domínguez, referring to Andrés Cortabitarte’s lawyer and the public prosecutor. “What was missing was that the prosecution also represented him,” said the victims’ representative, who also criticized the “missteps” of the public prosecutor’s office during the investigation.
As he recalled, the first prosecutor in charge of the case, Antonio Roma – now also in charge of the appeal – refused to indict Adif’s former security director, upon which the Provincial Court s is then pronounced. For his part, the prosecutor who participated in the trial, Mario Piñeiro, maintained the accusation against the head of Adif during the hearings, but withdrew it “at the last moment”, said Domínguez, shooting its final conclusions. The train driver and the former security director were nevertheless found guilty of 80 homicides for serious professional misconduct.
“What we, victims, perceive are abuses, because the Prosecutor’s Office, instead of defending the interests of the victims, defends the interests of the powerful and fulfills the mandate of the government,” underlined Jesús Domínguez, to whom his lawyer told makes it known that the presentation of this document to appeal this conviction is “unusual” and, for them, “the feeling is that there is no shame”.
In any case, the victims hope that the sentence will be maintained, given that it is “very clear” on issues such as “it is incomprehensible that there were not more security measures” on the stretch or the requirement for a risk analysis “…this has never happened.” appeared.”
