ATHENS – The acquittal of 15 officials – and no jail time for six who were convicted of failures in the July 23, 2018 wildfires that killed 104 people and nearly wiped out the seaside Greek village of Mati – is being reviewed by an Appellate Court.

That came after the misdemeanors court heard testimony from the families of victims, including a Polish man whose wife and 9-year-old son – who escaped the blaze in Mati in a boat – drowned in the sea when it capsized.

He said he later saw their bodies at the port of Rafina and was told they were swimming for hours waiting to be rescued but the then-ruling Radical Left SYRIZA government didn’t dispatch vessels to take survivors out of the waters.

He said that was a criminal act, not a misdemeanor as it falls under Greek law, with the Leftists while ruling reducing penalties for serious crimes and the leniency in the case raising outrage in Greece.

Another who testified, Vassiliki Koukla, said her elderly parents died in their kitchen because the fire department – fire brigade officials were among those convicted – never showed up to rescue them.

She searched for them without success and said the next morning her cousin called to say they were found burned to death and that she had to sign documents as next of kin, one of the many tragic stories related.

Following the funeral, she said, the Fire Department told her that they had released the wrong body instead of her father’s, and when they said they could informally settle the issue, she called a prosecutor to approve the exhumation.

The appeals court rejected arguments in defense of 15 officials found innocent by the First Court on procedural issues, and will expand its trial to include the original total of 21 defendants, including public officials.

The first court had sentenced six other defendants to 5 years in jail but said they could buy out their time by paying 10 euros a day, including the elderly man who started the fire by burning brush outside his home on a windy day.