A 66-year-old man was led before a prosecutor on Tuesday after he was arrested on four counts of arson by intention in the southern suburb Vari on June 8 and 9, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Tuesday.
In a statement, Kikilias added that a prosecutor decided to detain a 33-year-old man who was arrested for setting three fires in Magoula in Elefsina intentionally on July 31 and August 1.
Both arrests were carried out by the Fire Department’s investigation directorate of crimes of arson.
Three men who were carrying out work that had led to a fire in Koromilia near Domokos, central Greece, were arrested on Monday, the minister revealed. The firefighters – including 7 aircraft and 1 helicopter – “fought hard to save the threatened settlement, as the fire broke out next to homes.”
Authorities, the minister said, “will not stop investigating in depth every one of the fires, so that perpetrators may be led before justice and pay the repercussions of their criminal acts.”
Kikilias reiterated that the new Criminal Code foresees sentences up to 10 years in jail for arson by negligence, since the former misdemeanor has been changed to a crime, and up to 20 years for arson by intention.
