February 23, 2021 - 6:29 AM
ATHENS, Greece - Supporters of a jailed gunman from an armed extreme-left group who is on hunger strike and in failing health evaded security Tuesday to protest outside the Athens home of Greece’s president.
The government condemned the action at the home of President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, where the protesters scattered leaflets. No arrests were reported.
Dimitris Koufodinas, 63, is serving 11 life sentences for murder, armed robbery and use of firearms and explosives as a leading member of the militant group November 17, whose members remained at large for decades until a botched bomb attack in 2002.
Koufodinas has been on hunger strike for more than six weeks after the centre-right government led recent legislative amendments to anti-terrorism laws, ending his furloughs and stay in a low-security rural prison.
Koufodinas argues that his transfer in December to a high-security prison in central Greece was illegal and is demanding to return to the Athens prison where he had spent most of his sentence so far.
His supporters have staged multiple protests including a recent firebomb attack at the entrance of a private television station, and vandalizing the entrance of a building used as a private office by Greece's minister of education.
News from © The Associated Press, 2021