Three Greeks, who claim to be owners, inheritors of the famous Zakynthos shipwreck "Panagiotis", have launched legal proceedings to repossess it, saying they want to undertake its repair and liaise with companies and public authorities in order to exploit it commercially in the tourism sector.
According to the news report, the legal dispute between the owners, the municipality of Zakynthos and the TEI of the Ionian Islands began in July 2016 when Alexandros Soulanis, one of the owners of the ship - the other two were Panagiotis Lysikatos and Efstratios Stavrakis, all sailors - filed an application for injunctive relief at the Magistrate's Court of Zakynthos.
In 2017, the Magistrate's Court rejected the injunctions and the owners appealed to the Court of First Instance, which also rejected the injunctions. In 2021, the heirs of the three owners filed a petition to appeal the decision of the single-member Court of First Instance of Zakynthos to the Supreme Court.
"We believe in Greek justice and we believe that we will be vindicated. For so many years we have have been proven truthful since the Greek government has neglected the ship and taken care of it and as a result has disintegrated.
"We want the Supreme Court to allow us to work as much as we can on it. Our previous applications through the injunctive measures were rejected on the grounds that the Greek government has jurisdiction and ownership of the ship and they will deal with it and fix it. Unfortunately, all these turned out to be false hopes because in reality nothing happened. Even the Committee that was set up with great fanfare was disbanded," said Dimitris Vidakis, lawyer for the heirs of the ship's owners, to Greek media outlet protothema.gr.
