Korydallos Prison

Last updated
Korydallos Prison
Korydallosprison.jpg
Korydallos Prison
Coordinates 37°58′56″N23°38′50″E / 37.98222°N 23.64722°E / 37.98222; 23.64722
Security classType B
CityPiraeus
CountyGreece
Korydallos Prison.jpg

Korydallos Prison Complex is Greece's largest jail and contains the country's main maximum-security prison (Type B),[ citation needed ] housing both maximum-security men and women. It is located in Korydallos, Piraeus. Famous detainees include members of the anarchist urban guerrilla organizations Revolutionary Organization 17 November, Revolutionary Struggle and Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei. [1] [2] Korydallos prison was also used as the place for the Greek junta trials in 1975, [3] and contains a special court in its basement.

Contents

Nikolaos Dertilis was the last remaining junta member in jail. He died 28 January 2013 at the age of 94. [4]

Conditions of detention

Amnesty International and other human rights bodies such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture have repeatedly expressed concern about the prison for its overcrowding and inhumane treatment of detainees. [5] [6] In 2007, a special committee composed of physicians of the Division of Health Inspections of the Prefecture of Piraeus and Piraeus Medical Association has reported that the hospital and the mental clinic of the prison operate without even the minimum conditions of hygiene, with aging infrastructure and big shortages in medical and nursing staff. [7] The Hellenic Parliament has vowed to improve conditions.[ citation needed ] Since May 2008 the women prisoners section has been transferred to Thiva prison complex following many years of protests and complaints to the government by the Korydallos municipality and inhabitants.[ citation needed ] As of[ when? ] only one of the three women prison section hosts women under trial.[ citation needed ] Demolition works have commenced, for the two out of the three sections, in January 2010 and although they were expected to be completed till the end of June 2010, leaving free space of 10 acres (40,000 m2) to be used as a park, the demolition was completed about 7 years after, in March 2017. [8]

Prisoner actions

In November 1995, there was a massive riot, with inmates taking control of the prison for several days in a "battle" with prison guards and police. [9] Earlier in 1990, the inmates of Korydalos took over the entire complex for 28 days.[ citation needed ] The seizure of the complex was related to prison conditions and criminal justice reform. After the 28 day standoff, Justice officials bent to a majority of the demands the prisoners made and concessions were given in favor of the inmates.[ citation needed ]

There have been several politically motivated attacks in relation to Korydallos prison, including; On 13 May 2010, a bomb exploded outside the prison injuring a member of the public. Police suspected Revolutionary Struggle. [10] In 2013, a bomb containing 1 kg of dynamite was left under the car of the governor of Korydallos Prison outside his home in Dafni, Athens. The attack was claimed by the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei as "a show of solidarity for our 10 imprisoned brothers". [11] And in 2016, a bomb exploded next to a prison officer's car at his home. The attack was reported as an attempt of intimidation. [12]

In February 2008 a group of political inmates held a sit-down protest against the transfer of an anarchist prisoner to another prison. Among the protesters was N17 prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas.

In January 2021 Dimitris Koufontinas, then 63 year old prisoner convicted of crimes as part of November 17 Organization performed a 66 day hunger strike with the goal of being sent to Korydallos prison. Street demonstrations were held in multiple cities across Greece as well as attacks against property has been claimed in support of Koufontinas, [13] [14] Koufontinas ended the hunger strike after 66 days without his demands having been met. [15]

Notable Inmates and Escapes

Inmate Vasilis Paleokostas, known popularly as the 'Greek Robin Hood' drew attention to the prison when he escaped with a rented helicopter, twice in June 2006 and February 2009. [16]

In January 2014 Christodoulos Xiros of 17 November Organization whilst serving multiple life sentences escaped after being granted temporary leave to see his family in the north of the country only to not return. Xiros was captured a year later allegedly preparing further guerrilla actions including aiding other prisoners in escape. [17]

Nikolaos Maziotis, the reported leader of the urban guerrilla organization, Revolutionary Struggle disappeared in April 2014 during his trial at Korydallos prison. Maziotis was captured in July 2014 after a shootout with police in Central Athens during a robbery, leaving himself and two others including one police officer injured. [17] [18] In 2016 Maziotis again attempted escape when romantic partner and comrade in Revolutionary Struggle, Pola Roupa, unsuccessfully attempted to help Maziotis along with other political prisoners escape via a hijacked helicopter. [19]

Human rights activist Sarah Mardini was incarcerated at Korydallos during 106 days in pre-trail detention, after being arrested for various crimes in 2018. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revolutionary Organization 17 November</span> Greek urban guerrilla organization (1975–2002)

Revolutionary Organization 17 November, also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek Marxist–Leninist urban guerrilla organization. Formed in 1975 and led by Alexandros Giotopoulos, 17N conducted an extensive urban guerrilla campaign against the Greek state, banks, and businesses. The organization committed 103 known armed robberies, assassinations, and bombing attacks, during which 23 people were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korydallos</span> Municipality in Greece

Korydallos is both a town and a municipality in the Piraeus regional unit, Greece. It is located in the southwestern part of Athens agglomeration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Force-feeding</span> Practice of feeding a human or animal against their will

Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term gavage refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into the stomach.

Alexandros Giotopoulos is a Greek convicted terrorist, currently serving seventeen life sentences plus 25 years imprisonment. He was found guilty in 2003 of leading the Marxist-Leninist Greek urban guerrilla terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Dawn (Greece)</span> Greek neo-Nazi criminal organisation

The Popular Association – Golden Dawn, usually shortened to Golden Dawn, is a far-right neo-Nazi ultranationalist organisation and former political party in Greece. Golden Dawn rose to prominence during Greece's financial crisis of 2009, becoming the third most popular party in the Greek parliament in the January 2015 election. Its support since plunged, and it failed to enter parliament in the 2019 election. The criminal trial against the leaders, frequently described as the largest trial of Nazis since the Nuremberg trials, lasted more than five years.

Dimitrios Ioannidis, also known as Dimitris Ioannidis and as The Invisible Dictator, was a Greek military officer and one of the leading figures in the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974. Ioannidis was considered a "purist and a moralist, a type of Greek Gaddafi".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ionikos F.C.</span> Football club

Ionikos Football Club is a Greek football club based in Nikaia, Greece, currently competing in the Piraeus FCA Championship, an amateur category. It is part of the multi-sport club Ionikos Nikaias.

Pavlos Bakoyannis was a liberal Greek politician who was well known for his broadcasts against the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 on Bayerischer Rundfunk radio.

Revolutionary Struggle is a Greek anarchist, anti-imperialist, urban guerrilla group known for its attacks on Greek government buildings and the American embassy in Athens. It is designated as a terrorist group by the Greek government, the European Union (EU), and the United States.

Multiple terrorist attacks have occurred in Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insein Prison</span> Prison near Yangon, Myanmar

Insein Prison is located in Yangon Division, near Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Myanmar. From 1988 to 2011 it was run by the military junta of Myanmar, named the State Law and Order Restoration Council from 1988 to 2003 and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) from 2003 to 2011, and was used largely to repress political dissidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thodoris Dritsas</span> Greek Syriza politician

Thodoris Dritsas is a Greek politician of the Syriza party who has served as the Minister of Shipping and Island Policy and Alternate Minister for Shipping and the Aegean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths</span> Resistance organization during the Axis occupation of Greece in WWII

The Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths was an anti-Nazi and anti-fascist movement that took part in the Greek resistance during the Axis Occupation of Greece in the Second World War. The organization was concentrated in the areas of Athens and Piraeus, and although it never expanded to become a wider movement, it was one of the most active of the multitude of urban resistance groups that sprung up during the Occupation, and one of the first to carry out active resistance, in the form of bombings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek junta trials</span>

The Greek junta trials were the trials involving members of the military junta that ruled Greece from 21 April 1967 to 23 July 1974. These trials involved the instigators of the coup as well as other junta members of various ranks who took part in the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising and in the torture of citizens.

Vassilis Palaiokostas is a Greek bank robber and fugitive known as the "Greek Robin Hood" for his habit of giving away stolen money to the poor.

Greek Unity is a minor Greek nationalist political party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei</span> Anarchist militant organization

The Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, also translated as Conspiracy of Fire Cells or Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, is an anarchist urban guerrilla organization based in Greece. The SPF first surfaced in January 2008, with a wave of 11 firebombings against luxury car dealerships and banks in Athens and Thessaloniki. Monthly waves of arson have been followed by proclamations expressing solidarity with arrested anarchists in Greece and elsewhere. In September 2009, following an escalation to the use of crude time bombs, four suspected members of the group were arrested. In November 2010 two more suspects were arrested while attempting to mail parcel bombs to embassies and EU leaders and organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korydallos metro station</span> Athens Metro station

Korydallos is a station on Athens Metro Line 3. A part of the Piraeus extension, construction on the station began in 2012 and it opened on July 7, 2020, along with the extension's phase I to Nikaia.

The Hellenic Operational Research Society (HELORS) is the official non-profit society for the scientific field of Operations Research in Greece. The society is a member of the European umbrella organization, the Association of European Operational Research Societies, and of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies.

The 2021 Greek protests broke out in response to a proposed government bill that would allow police presence on university campuses for the first time in decades, for which opposition groups accused the government of taking advantage of the COVID-19 lockdown to impose increasingly authoritarian measures. Protests intensified in response to the hunger strike of the prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas, a former member of terrorist organization 17N, who had started the strike in December, demanding his transfer to a different prison after he had been forcibly relocated to a maximum-security facility in central Greece, as well as issues relating to police brutality and specifically the DELTA Force motorcycle police.

References

  1. ↑ "Terrorist Designations of Christodoulos Xiros and Nikolaos Maziotis". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  2. ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 - Greece". Refworld. Archived from the original on 2016-06-04. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  3. ↑ "Trial of Former Junta Opens in Greece". The New York Times. 1975-07-29. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  4. ↑ "Nikolaos Dertilis, member of Greek junta, dies at 94". Washington Post. January 28, 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-04-19. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "Amnesty International Report". Amnesty International. 2008-01-01. Archived from the original on 2018-11-22. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  6. ↑ "Greece: Conditions of Detention in 2001". International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. 2002-03-19. Archived from the original on 2009-07-30. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  7. ↑ Τριτοκοσμικές οι συνθήκες στις Φυλακές Κορυδαλλού. Prefecture of Piraeus (in Greek). nomarhiapeiraia.gr. 2007-05-16. Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  8. ↑ "Κατεδαφίστηκαν δύο πτέρυγες των γυναικείων φυλακών Κορυδαλλού - Η έκταση θα μετατραπεί σε χώρο πρασίνου" (in Greek). 2017-03-23. Archived from the original on 2021-06-18.
  9. ↑ Μακεδονία, 19 Νοεμβρίου 1995 (in Greek)
  10. ↑ "Channel NewsAsia". Archived from the original on 2012-07-22.
  11. ↑ "Greek militant group claims bomb attack outside prison director's home". Reuters. 2013-06-08. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  12. ↑ "Bomb planted in car of Athens Korydallos prison guard". TornosNews.GR. Archived from the original on 2016-11-19. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  13. ↑ "Attacks in Solidarity with Hunger Striker Dimitris Koufontinas in Athens, Greece". AMW English. 2021-02-03. Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2021-05-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. ↑ "Police disperse Athens demo in support of convict Dimitris Koufontinas' hunger strike". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  15. ↑ "Greek militant in jail for life to end hunger strike, lawyer says". Reuters. 2021-03-14. Archived from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  16. ↑ "Prison break repeat shocks Greece". BBC. 2009-02-22. Archived from the original on 2009-02-22. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  17. 1 2 "Terrorist Designations of Christodoulos Xiros and Nikolaos Maziotis". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  18. ↑ "Greek fugitive Nikos Maziotis held after Athens shootout". BBC News. 2014-07-16. Archived from the original on 2019-03-11. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  19. ↑ "Prison Break Attempt at Korydallos Via Helicopter". GreekReporter.com. 2016-02-22. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  20. ↑ "Refugee activist facing Greek court left 'in limbo' after trial postponed". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 January 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.