The decision of a prison judicial council to grant a two-day political furlough to the defunct N17 terrorist organisation’s top hitman has triggered a political maelstrom, with fierce criticism from New Democracy and other political parties.
Koufodinas has been convicted for eleven of N17’s murderous hits and is serving 11 life sentences for those attacks
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The convicted terrorist has repeatedly underlined, including in his book on his time in the organisation, that he has no remorse for the murders.
This is the first time in his 15-year incarceration that the judicial panel granted Koufodinas a furlough, after the rejection of repeated petitions in the past.
The existing legal framework provides for prison furloughs upon the approval of the competent prison council, on which a prosecutor sits, following a review of the prisoner’s file.
Mitsotakis blasts decision
Main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose brother-in-law Pavlos Bakoyannis, a conservative MP at the time, was murdered by N17, publicly denounced the decision in the strongest terms.
In a tweet, Mitsotakis wrote, “Any type of furlough for Koufodinas is inconceivable. Not only for his heinous crimes which targeted democracy, but because he has never expressed any remorse for these acts and he remains the ideological guide of the new generation of terrorists.”
Former foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, who was Bakoyannis’ widow, lashed out at the prison council’s decision. “How is it possible to give the top gun of N17 a furlough? Will Mr. Koufodinas be strolling free in Athens tomorrow?” she wrote in a tweet yesterday.
Eleftheria Kollia
