His anger in the midst of the unbearable pain of losing his mother was expressed by a witness who testified at the Mati fire trial.
Evangelia Nikolopoulou, who lost her 59-year-old mother in 2018, said: “The worst thing is that no one told them to stay safe, to leave. My mother lived in Mati for 59 years and could have been saved. But she left the house with the crows chasing her. No one informed them. No one tried to save them and no one respected the dead. They turned against the victims, who were to blame for the arbitrariness,” the witness testified, who spoke of abusive behavior towards the dead.
“If that’s not disrespecting the people who died, then what is?”
“At some point when we went to my mother’s grave, my aunt showed me a spot where there were burnt bones from the Eye. I went to the priest and asked, ‘Is there anything buried here?’ and he said, ‘Yes, unidentified bones are buried here.’ I emailed the mayor of Marathon and a plaque was put up at the spot, but there are unidentified bones from a sweeping operation that took place somewhere in Mati to clear them. If that’s not disrespectful to the people who died, were tortured and died, then what is?”