The Greek judiciary has reacted with anger to a call from the US State Department urging the government in Athens to imprison a notorious domestic terrorist who was recently released.

Alexandros Yiotopoulos, widely regarded as the mastermind behind Greece’s most notorious far-left terrorist organisation, November 17 (17N), was released on 21 May.

“We strongly urge the Greek Government to do all it can to return Giotopoulos to prison,” the US State Department said in a statement. “Terrorism must never be tolerated or excused.”

The 17N group was dismantled in 2002 and its members were subsequently imprisoned.

The organisation had adopted a strongly anti-American ideology and began its campaign on 23 December 1975 with the assassination of the CIA station chief in Athens, Richard Welch.

Yiotopoulos remained one of the most heavily sentenced prisoners in Greece. He was given 17 life sentences, in addition to a further 25 years imprisonment.

He never accepted the court’s finding that he was the leader of 17N and never expressed remorse for his actions.

However, a court ruled last month that he should be released after spending 24 years in prison. The decision prompted strong reactions in Greece, and the deputy prosecutor of the supreme court filed an appeal seeking to overturn the conditional release.

The Association of Greek Judges and Prosecutors has accused the US of interfering in Greece’s judicial system.

“We do not know whether it has now become common practice in the US for governments to overturn judicial decisions; however, in Greece, democracy and the constitutional separation of powers entrust the assessment of the conditions for the conditional release of prisoners exclusively to the judiciary,” the statement said.

(bw)