It wasn't said why he was singled out with many people in Greece not wearing masks required under COVID-19 lenient lockdown rules, but a man in the northern city of Serres was sentenced to 40 days in jail for refusing to do so.

The unidentified man, 37, was said to have repeatedly refused to wear a mask but it wasn't said if that was in a store or public gathering or elsewhere, the sentence coming from a misdemeanors court.

The sentence was for 60 days but 20 days were suspended, with legal experts telling the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA) that a new penal code allows jail time and a suspended sentence as a deterrent.

The New Democracy government has eased restrictions so much that it's common to see people not wearing masks and there's no been no reports of police trying to enforce it. 

Greece has a small contingent of anti-masks and those who believe the pandemic is a hoax or designed to control their minds, and also those who don't believe in vaccines but most people had been obeying the health rules aimed at slowing the spread of the Coronavirus, with cases starting to gradually fall.