ATHENS – Greece’s major opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has urged the New Democracy government to save the life of terrorist assassin Dimitris Koufodinas, on a hunger strike, by giving in to his demand to be transferred to a prison in Athens from central Greece.

"The life of Dimitris Koufodinas, convicted on terrorism charges, according to the physicians, is hanging by a thread. I am calling, even at this last minute, on the government to change its stance, so it (thread) is not cut. Human life in a state with the rule of law is paramount; even when dealing with those convicted because they did not respect it (others' human life),” said Tsipras.

During the 4 ½ years his party – riddled with terrorist and anarchist sympathizers – was in power, Koufodinas got preferential treatment, including being transferred from Korydallos Prison in Athens – where he wants to go back – along with six vacations from jail.

After Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis routed SYRIZA and Tsipras in July 7, 2019 snap elections, the government transferred Koufodinas from a low-security work farm – where he was sent under the Leftists – to a high-security prison in Domokos.

Unable to get more furloughs and wanting to go back to the Athens prison, where he has compatriots in other terrorists and anarchists for company, he went on a hunger strike in January and his health was said to be at risk at a hospital in Larissa where he’s being overseen, reportedly refusing liquids.

He is serving life sentences for 11 homicide convictions as the convicted arch-assassin of the November 17 terror group that was busted ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics – among 23 victims that included five Americans attached to the US Embassy over the year.

He and his supporters claim that a recently passed law – which disqualified him from serving time on the farm – requires he be returned to the correctional facility from where he was sent – Korydallos.

The government disputed that interpretation and said that Korydallos is primarily a pre-detention facility and not just high-security and is being used to process transfers to other prisons, said the business newspaper Naftemporiki.

Mitsotakis’ office rejected the call out of hand and issued a statement that said, “With respect to the rule of law and humanitarian values, every convict is provided with every possible medical care. However, preferential treatment and violations of the law should not be requested, especially by the leader of the main opposition.”

The terrorist sympathy site The Press Project said the New Democracy government is taking vengeance on him because one of the 23 victims of Nov. 17 was current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ then brother-in-law Pavlos Bakoyannis, shot and killed outside his office in 1989.

Supporters of Koufodinas, who is a darling to terrorist sympathizers, have taken to the streets in protests, demanding more lenient and preferential treatment for him and even targeted the home of Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, where they threw fliers backing the assassin's constant demands.