The decision of the Board of Appeals to release Alexandros Giotopoulos is not simply a judicial development, but a blatant challenge to the public’s sense of justice , which has justifiably provoked a storm of reactions.
The fact that the Judicial Council chose to defiantly ignore the detailed recommendation of the Appeals Prosecutor , who opposed the release, raises serious questions about the criteria by which the gravity of the most heinous crimes in the history of the post-government era is assessed.
When a person has been sentenced to 17 life sentences , granting freedom under the pretext of advanced age or formal compliance with prison rules degrades the very value of human life and irreparably offends the memory of the victims of terrorism .
The invocation of “good conduct”, the “doctorate” and the successful use of regular leave since 2022 can in no way function as a guilt-taker or as an alibi for early release.
In the case of Giotopoulos, Justice was not dealing with an ordinary criminal prisoner, but the man who, according to the irrevocable indictment, was the absolute “mastermind” of November 17 .
He was not a simple accomplice or a next-door hitman, but the mastermind who captured, organized, and gave the orders for the murders that bled the country for decades. Treating the mastermind and organizer of such terrorist attacks with bureaucratic leniency is a dangerous slip-up in our penitentiary system.
This court decision ignores the fact that Giotopoulos, from his arrest in the summer of 2002 in Lipsi until today, has never shown the slightest remorse, choosing to stubbornly deny his actions and not offer any moral justification to the families of the victims.
The restrictive conditions imposed on him, such as the ban on leaving the country and appearing at the police station, seem like an insignificant obligation in view of the magnitude of his conviction. While the hard core of the organization, such as the chief executioner Dimitris Koufontinas and the Xirou brothers, remain rightfully in prison, the release of the man who pulled the strings behind them creates an inexplicable paradox and leaves a deep wound in the credibility of our legal culture.
