18 MAKARATZIS v. GREECE JUDGMENT order to stop him and intimidate him, so that he would stop driving in a manner that was dangerous to other civilians, and to protect the latter, as was their duty. Therefore, the accused must be declared innocent of the acts attributed to them in the indictment.” 20. The applicant, who was present when the judgment was pronounced, did not have the right to appeal under domestic law. The text of the judgment was finalised on 20 May 1999. D. Criminal proceedings against the applicant 21. On 20 April 1997 the public prosecutor instituted criminal proceedings against the applicant. The indictment read as follows: “[The applicant] is accused ... of committing a number of offences and more specifically: A. While driving [his] car in Athens on 13 September 1995, he caused with his vehicle bodily injury and harm to others by his negligence, that is, by failing to take the care he should and could have taken in the circumstances and to anticipate the culpable consequences of his acts. More specifically: (a) while he was driving the vehicle referred to above in Posidonos Avenue, near Paleo Faliro, towards the airport, he did not keep enough distance between himself and the vehicles in front to be able to avoid a crash in case they reduced their speed or stopped, so that he crashed the front of his car into the back of the car with the private registration number IR-8628 that Iliostalakti Soumpasi was driving in the same direction, resulting in injuries to her neck; (b) after the above crash, the accused continued driving the vehicle referred to above and, while he was going along Posidonos Avenue near Kalamaki, he again failed to keep enough distance from the vehicles in front, thus crashing the front of his car into the back of the car with the taxi registration number E-3507 that Ioannis Goumas was driving and that had stopped at a red light in the left lane of Posidonos Avenue, the consequence of which was to cause injury to the aforementioned driver who suffered a cervical hernia and an injury to the head. B. While he was driving [his] car at the time and place referred to above, he did not keep enough distance from the vehicles in front to avoid a crash in case they reduced their speed or stopped. C. While he was driving [his] car at the time and place referred to above, he did not abide by the police officers’ signal to stop and, specifically, while he was driving the vehicle referred to above in Athens, crossing Vassilissis Sofias Street, Amalias Avenue, Siggrou Avenue and Posidonos Avenue, he did not comply with a signal to stop made by police officer Sotirios Souliotis, who was using a car of the Hellenic Police, registration number EA-11000, in Vassilissis Sofias Street, but continued driving, crossing all the streets mentioned above, while the above-mentioned police car and other police cars of the Hellenic Police were chasing him ...” 22. By judgment no. 16111/2000, the Athens First-Instance Criminal Court sentenced the applicant to forty days’ imprisonment.