Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis announced his resignation on Monday following the outcry stemming from the death of a passenger who was thrown into the sea by ferry crew members last week.
The 36-year-old passenger was pushed by crew members while trying to board a ship preparing to leave the port of Piraeus near Athens.
Miltiadis Varvitsiotis will be replaced by Christos Stylianidis, a former MP and minister, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said during a press conference on Monday.
“The killing of Antonis Kargiotis by crew members of the Blue Horizon ferry shocked us all,” Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said in his resignation letter posted on social media.
He once again asked for “pardon” for this incident, and stressed that he “was the target of an attack in recent days,” saying that some accused him of “putting the victim and the perpetrators on equal footing in terms of the crime,” which he rejects.
In a video that went viral last Wednesday, we saw the victim running to catch the ferry at Piraeus Port in time, while the slope was still low.
But the crew members stop him, and in the end one of them pushes Antonis Kargiotis, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the sea.
Despite the screams of passengers, the sight of the passenger in the water and the fear for his life, the ferry left the port as planned towards Heraklion on the island of Crete, leaving the man to drown instead of coming to his aid.
The minister’s resignation comes a few hours after the courts ordered the temporary detention of the captain of the “Blue Horizon” ship, who is accused of “endangering the sea” and a crew member accused of murder.
