Jailed terrorist Koufodinas ends hunger strike, thanks supporters

Convicted terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas has ended his hunger strike after 66 days.

Koufodinas, 63, who is serving 11 consecutive life sentences plus 25 years for murders he committed as the main hitman of far-left armed group November, had begun the hunger strike demanding to be transferred to a prison of his choice.

In a statement released through his lawyer, Ioanna Kourtovik, Koufodinas thanked the “progressive people” who showed solidarity in a “fight against an inhumane power system.”

Several protest marches have taken place to support Koufodinas’ demands and sympathizers have staged a series of arson and vandalism attacks in recent days.

“There are living social forces who resist arbitrariness, violence ans authoritarianism. This gives [us] hope,” Koufodinas said.

Koufodinas also attacked the “governing family that has shown how ruthless it is in debasing the laws and the Constitution.” This is a reference to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the scion of a political family. Koufodinas and one other man murdered Mitsotakis’ brother-in-law, Pavlos Bakoyiannis, in September 1989. US and UK military officers were also among his victims before the armed group was dismantled in 2002 and he turned himself in.

Koufodinas had benefitted from the previous leftist government’s passage of a law that allowed him to serve at a minimum-security “farming” prison. The legislation was repealed by Mitsotakis’ conservative government.

Koufodinas’ demand for a transfer was rejected by the government and the courts. His hunger strike led to kidney failure and the doctors have described him as dangerously weakened.

[AP]