ATHENS – His lawyers appeal for him to be released on health grounds because he’s on a hunger strike rejected, terrorist killer Dimitris Koufodinas is nearing two months of not eating and now has stopped taking fluids.
A misdemeanor court rejected his lawyers arguments that his self-induced health problems were so severe, putting his life at risk, that his sentence – he’s serving life terms for killing 11 people – should be commuted.
The judges of the court in the central Greek town of Lamia upheld the recommendation of a local prosecutor that he put his life at risk by refusing to eat and didn’t deserve to get out for bringing it on, said Kathimerini.
“The treatment of a serious illness,” the court said in a statement, “can be done through the medical assistance offered to him,” which he is refusing, again using a hunger strike as he’s done before to get his way.
“It is the applicant who is setting the termination of his sentence as a condition in order to receive medical assistance. The court rules that his stay in the hospital is not unfavorable treatment,” the statement read.
The doctor treating Koufodinas at Lamia hospital told the court his condition is critical but noted that he is not intubated and that he is fully aware of his decisions but won’t eat or drink.
Koufodinas, the chief assassin for the disbanded Nov. 17 terror group was transferred by the former ruling Radical Left SYRIZA that’s riddled with terrorist sympathizers, from the then-high security Korydallos Prison in Athens to a low-security work farm.
After the Leftists were beaten in July 7, 2019 snap elections, New Democracy moved him to a high-security prison in the central town of Domokos but not liking conditions there, he demanded to go back to Korydallos.
That prison, however, is now designed more as a pre-detention facility and the government said is not set up for high-profile inmates who have committed violent crimes.
Former US ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns, who served from 1997-2001, said that the government is “right to refuse to coddle the convicted terrorist.”
“He and the terrorist group 17 November murdered five members of the US Embassy staff between 1975-1991 and many Greeks. We will never forget,” he tweeted while Koufodinas supporters are marching in the streets.