Convicted of killing a 4-year-old refugee boy who was crushed while playing by a sliding metal door at a complex of rented rooms housing refugees and migrants in Vrasna Thessalonikithe owners of the accommodation. The court sentenced each of them to 2.5 years in prison, suspended for 3 years.
This is an androgynous man who was found guilty of manslaughter by false pretenses, with the mitigating factor of his previous cohabitation. For the same case, the Tripartite Commission Criminal Court Thessaloniki, after a hearing lasting several days, acquitted the Afghan parents of the 4-year-old child who faced the same charge.
“It is unacceptable for our culture to kill children in this way,” the prosecutor said in her speech. “For a door to fall down where there are children playing, an earthquake must have occurred or a heavy demolition machine must have knocked it down,” she said, asking for the guilt of the two defendants who own the hotel unit, where under a contract with the International Refugees and Immigrants who have requested international protection they resided at the Migration Agency.
As can be seen from the expert report, cited by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the contested door appears to have been poorly maintained.
How did the accident happen?
According to the records, the incident occurred in April 2019. The unfortunate refugee boy climbed with two of his younger friends onto the sliding metal door (3.80 meters long and weighing 110 kg) located in the hotel courtyard and they shook it when they saw it as a game. During its oscillation, combined with the speed of movement, it appears that the rings moved back from their position at the support point with the concrete and the closing point moved a few centimeters.
“This caused the door to come loose from the end rollers (as the inner roller was excessively worn and created a gap in its transverse movement) and the safety that prohibited vertical movement was bent.”
Under these circumstances, as stated in the records, the door fell to the floor, crushing the minor, who suffered a fatal brain injury.
“The door fell under the weight”
In their statements, both defendants denied the accusation. “The door fell under the weight. We had weekly maintenance. The door was in extremely good condition. A tremendous force with 250% load force was developed on the door. The rear stopper did not have time to work. What else should I do? Should I make a tank door with tracks? He had many children at the door and that’s how it fell. He couldn’t bear it anymore,” the man said. His wife, in turn, renounced her responsibilities, usually stating that “not a single nail was broken” in the hotel.
The parents of the 4-year-old child were represented by a lawyer (they appeared on the first day of the trial). They now live and work in Germany.
Source: RES-MPE