ATHENS (AA) - A convicted far-left terrorist who is serving 11 life sentences in Greece for murder was granted his first two-day furlough and is expected to leave the prison on Thursday.
Dimitris Koufodinas is serving multiple life sentences for murder after he was identified as a leader of the revolutionary terror group November 17 in a major trial that followed his arrest.
Koufodinas, who has been in prison since 2003, had requested a furlough in the past but the Korydallos prison council had rejected it.
The November 17 group was active in Greece between 1975 and 2002. It is considered responsible for the assassination of 23 people in 103 attacks, namely on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek nationals.
Between 1991 and 1994, they launched attacks targeting diplomats of the Turkish Embassy in Athens.
Turkish press attache Cetin Gorgu was killed in 1991 while counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Athens, Omer Haluk Sipahioglu, was gunned down in front of his home in 1994.
Ambassador Deniz Bolukbasi, Nilgun Kececi, wife of Turkish vice-consul, and driver Adil Yıldırım were also wounded in attacks reportedly carried out by the group.
On Jan. 1, 2014, one of the group members, Savas Xiros, was granted furlough but he vanished soon after. He was apprehended a year later.
Opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis condemned the latest decision regarding Dimitris Koufodinas, saying it was “inconceivable”.
“It's not just his despicable actions against democracy, but because he's never expressed any remorse for these actions, and remains an ideological instructor for a new generation of terrorists," Mitsotakis tweeted on Thursday.
Mitsotakis's brother-in-law was gunned down by the terrorist group in 1989.