The Law Firm Koufelos & Partners… “No antenna in Vounaraki”, said the Court of First Instance. See below the relevant excerpt from the newspaper “Ta Nea tis Lesvou“…
The residents of Vounaraki with their lawyer Taxiarchis Koufelos overturned the case almost won by a mobile phone company to install an antenna in this area of Mytilini, convincing the justice with the arguments they developed for a health issue from the emission of radiation near the houses in an already densely populated area.
The mobile phone company had started the procedures to install the antenna in a rented property having a permit from EETT since the previous months and in fact the residents had reacted and the issue had also concerned them Municipality of Mytilini. In the interim of this claim, their representation was undertaken by the Law Firm Koufelos & Partners, with the representative of Taxiarchis Koufelos fighting to save a case that seemed lost from the beginning, as long as the legal framework for the installation of mobile telephone antennas leaves almost everything free. Mr. Koufelos highlighted the issues arising from the operation of the antenna in this area and the difficult coexistence with the residents, among them young children, patients and elderly people, so that the court eventually put a block on the installation.</p >
The decision (1/2022) of the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Mytilini on the process of Insurance Measures is really a landmark for any antenna installation and can be a pilot for future claims of societies from other neighborhoods or villages for corresponding problems. On the one hand, the decision recognizes that the antenna’s emission within 300 meters of the nearest house can cause irreparable damage to health, and on the other hand, it accepts the issue raised by Mr. Koufelos from the beginning that Vounaraki is an area, which is governed by provisions on traditional settlements and therefore the licenses already issued by the mobile phone company suffer, as additional licenses are required, as provided for traditional settlements, for such and other facilities.
News of Lesvos asked Mr. Koufelos for his opinion on the development of the case and the lawyer told our newspaper that “the Single Member Court of First Instance of Mytilini, fully embracing the concern of our fellow citizens , justified their reasonable request to stop the installation process of the antenna in Vounaraki, Mytilene, where it was intended to be placed and operate at a very short distance from their homes, schools and stadium. The Court, bound by the European rules of law of paramount application for the principle of precaution and evaluating the abundance of evidence that we presented, such as studies by professors, among others, of the University of the Aegean on electromagnetic radiation and its negative effects, as well as domestic foreign literature , confirmed that the concerns of our fellow citizens about the immediate risk of their health being significantly shaken are well founded”.
Mr. Koufelos spoke about the positioning of antennas within the urban fabric, pointing out that there are alternative locations away from houses. As he typically states: “It must be pointed out that there are alternative locations available around the city and outside the urban fabric, for the installation of an antenna, which do not harm the legal good of health, even taking into account that the city of Mytilini is not the basin of Attica to be in need of yet another antenna in its neighborhoods. Our Law Firm, fully satisfied with the result, declares that it will always stand by in matters of social sensitivity and human rights, as was proven in the past in a similar case for the Afalona area”.
