Supreme Court weighs in on Koufodinas controversy

The president and prosecutor of Greece’s Supreme Court weighed in on Friday on a controversy concerning the state’s stance towards Dimitris Koufodinas, the 62-year-old convicted terrorist who is on hunger strike over alleged violations of his right to a prison transfer.

In a public letter on Friday, Supreme Court President Angeliki Aleiferopoulou and Prosecutor Vassilis Pliotas took issue with a statement released earlier this week by the Union of Greek Judges and Prosecutors calling on the government to adopt a more lenient stance towards Koufodinas and on the competent authorities to grant his request to be transferred from the maximum-security Domokos penitentiary to the capital’s Korydallos Prison.

“Justice is expressed exclusively through specific and thoroughly reasoned decisions by competent judicial bodies – which are subject to scrutiny in the manner prescribed by law – and not by individuals or agencies, who are entitled to publicly express their thoughts and personal opinions, but have no statutory competence,” they said in their letter.

They also said that the country’s judges and prosecutors are duty bound to exercise their authority in a “non-biased” manner, without being “influenced by negative comments.”