An Athenian administrative court has opened hearings into a massive damages claim by a 25-year-old soldier who lost his right hand and eye after an expired grenade exploded during a military exercise in Cyprus.
The injured serviceman is seeking hundreds of thousands of euros from the Greek state following the February 2024 accident at the Stavrovouni training grounds. He was serving in the Greek Force in Cyprus (ELDYK) when a hand grenade detonated during a drill, amputating his right palm and damaging his right eye. Complications from severe infection led surgeons to remove his eyeball in October 2025, while attorneys for the soldier said he will need future toe-to-hand transplant surgery and a custom prosthetic eye.
Documents submitted to court showed that the National Guard supplied the Egyptian-made DG 270/2 grenade involved in the blast. Phileleftheros revealed that the Ministry of Defence purchased over 75,000 of these grenades in 2008 under terms specifying a 10-year shelf life, meaning the batch expired in 2018. Despite the expiration date, the National Guard transferred a batch of the grenades to ELDYK in 2023 for training purposes.
Court filings detailed how the injuries ended the veteran’s career as an electrical engineer and severely damaged his mental health.
A senior National Guard officer said two internal investigations took place following the blast, adding that the Cypriot military probe found no concerning defects with the ammunition. The officer noted that standard Greek forces grenades feature a five-to-six-second fuse delay, whereas the Egyptian model detonates in two to three seconds.
Court documents noted that a 2016 internal army memo warned officers to stop using the Egyptian-made DG 270/2 model after inspectors found liquefied explosive material blocking the detonator holes. Evidence submitted to the tribunal also referenced a 2014 incident in which another serviceman lost his right hand to an identical grenade.
K. Mortopoulos and Associates law firm, representing the soldier, said a lieutenant had merely visually inspected 73 grenades for surface cracks before issuing them. Two grenades were removed due to visible cracks, two failed to ignite, and one exploded in the soldier’s hand. Lawyers for the soldier expressed confidence that the judicial system would deliver justice.
