The former deputy commander of the Fire Brigade Andrianos Gourbatsis has conducted a study and found that only 3% of suspected arsonists face trial and conviction!
Mr. Gourtbatsis’ study focused on the 341,693 fires that broke out between 2000 and 2010, of which 224.708 (65.8%) were in urban areas and 116,985 occurred in rural, forested regions. In total, 6,145,817.3 acres of rural, agricultural and forest land were burned.
For 202,367 (59.22%) of these fires the cause could not be determined, while 85,954 (25.15%) were attributed to negligence and 30,107 (8.81%) were started intentionally. In total 116,061 suspects were prosecuted for arson in rural areas. Other those only 2,233 were convicted, with 2,002 (89.7%) being men and 231 (10.3%) women.
According to Mr. Gourbatsis’ divs there is only one conviction for every 714 urban fires and one conviction ofr every 61 rural fires. The researcher also notes that fault also lies with the prosecutors for not being as thorough in their investigations, with many of sentences being light.
