Convicted leader of the now-defunct November 17 (17N) terrorist group Alexandros Giotopoulos, 82, was released from prison on Thursday under strict conditions.
Giotopoulos, known as “Lambros,” was sentenced in 2003 to 17 life terms and an additional 25-year prison sentence for moral responsibility in 17 murders, as well as for involvement in bombings, armed robberies and participation in a terrorist organization.
A Greek appeals court approved his release Thursday, imposing conditions including a ban on leaving the country, mandatory appearance at a local police station every 15 days and a requirement to maintain a permanent residence.
Giotopoulos’ advanced age and good behavior
Sources indicate that the decisive factors in the court’s decision were Giotopoulos’s advanced age and the fact that he had served nearly the maximum actual prison time required by law, which legal experts note is 25 years.
Judges also weighed his exemplary behavior during incarceration, as he committed no disciplinary infractions. Instead, the man known within 17N as “Lambros” dedicated himself to academic studies, earning both a master’s degree and a PhD in mathematics from a French university while behind bars. Furthermore, since 2022—after two decades of strict confinement—he had been granted regular prison leaves, all of which he completed without incident.
Giotopoulos was “the brain” behind the 17N terrorist group
Giotopoulos was the absolute leader and “brain” behind the organization from its inception until July 17, 2002. The Counter-Terrorism Unit arrested him on the island of Lipsi, where he had been living under the alias “Michalis Oikonomou.”
His conviction covers the instigation of 17 assassinations, including those of Apogevmatini publisher Nikos Momferatos and his driver Panagiotis Rousetis (1985), Halivourgiki executive Nikos Aggelopoulos (1986), businessman Alexandros Athanasiadis-Bodosakis (1988), New Democracy MP Pavlos Bakoyannis (1989), shipowner Kostis Peratikos (1997), and British Brigadier Stephen Saunders (2000), among others.
To this day, Giotopoulos firmly denies any involvement with November 17 and rejects the title of group leader. During his appeal defense, he reiterated his innocence, calling the case against him a “conspiracy.”
Following Giotopoulos’s release, only three 17N members remain incarcerated: Dimitris Koufontinas (serving 11 life sentences plus 25 years) and the brothers Savvas and Christodoulos Xiros (serving five and six life sentences respectively, plus 25 years).
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