Supreme Court orders November 17 leader Giotopoulos back to prison
Greece’s Supreme Court has ordered convicted November 17 leader Alexandros Giotopoulos back to prison, overturning a decision that granted him conditional release less than three weeks ago.
The 82-year-old was released from Korydallos Prison on May 21 after serving around 24 years in custody while serving 17 life sentences and an additional 25-year term.
Court rules release did not meet legal requirements
The decision followed an appeal by Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Sofoklis Logothetis, who argued that Giotopoulos did not satisfy the legal conditions for release.
The Supreme Court ruled that Law 4855/2021 applies to the case, requiring inmates serving multiple life sentences to complete at least 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for conditional release.
As a result, the court annulled the earlier ruling by the Piraeus Appeals Council and reinstated a lower court decision that had denied his release request.
Case to be reviewed again
The case will now be reconsidered by a different panel of the Piraeus Appeals Court. However, under the current law, lower courts are bound by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the legal issues already decided in the case.
Giotopoulos was arrested in 2002 and convicted in 2003 for leading November 17, which carried out a decades-long campaign of assassinations and bombings targeting Greek and foreign officials, diplomats and military personnel. He received his final sentence in 2007.
Politically sensitive case
The case remains highly sensitive in Greece due to the violent legacy of November 17 and the continued imprisonment of other convicted members, including Dimitris Koufontinas and the Xeros brothers.
