Greek far-left terror group leader is released at age 82. But the decision could be reversed

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The head of a far-left Greek militant group that killed 23 people — among them industrialists, diplomats and a CIA station chief — has been released from a maximum-security prison, officials said Friday. The decision is now being reexamined by a senior prosecutor.

Alexandros Giotopoulos, the 82-year-old convicted leader of the armed group November 17, was released Thursday from a prison in Athens.

A judicial panel approved his conditional release on grounds of advanced age, deteriorating health and good behavior during his incarceration.

But the decision has triggered renewed scrutiny. A prosecutor at Greece’s Supreme Court is reviewing the ruling and could seek to challenge it.

November 17 evaded authorities for more than 25 years while carrying out bombings, assassinations and bank robberies. The group’s first recorded attack was the 1975 fatal shooting in Athens of Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Greece.

The organization’s strict secrecy unraveled after a botched bombing in 2002 left one member seriously injured, leading investigators to uncover the group’s operations and membership.

Giotopoulos, who was born in Paris and lived for years under an assumed identity, was serving 17 life sentences plus 25 years. He was convicted in 2003, with the verdict upheld on appeal in 2007, for orchestrating multiple murders, bombings and robberies, as well as participation in a criminal organization.

He has denied all charges, insisting that co-defendants were pressured by authorities into making false accusations against him in exchange for reduced sentences.

Authorities considering his release noted that Giotopoulos completed university correspondence courses while in prison and complied with the terms of furloughs granted to him in recent years.

November 17 was named after the day in 1973 when a student uprising against the military dictatorship that ruled Greece at the time was crushed in a bloody crackdown by the police and army that caused multiple deaths.

The group has claimed responsibility for attacks targeting industrialists, diplomats and senior judges, including the killings of two Turkish Embassy staff members and Stephen Saunders, the British defense attache in Athens, in 2000.

Three of the 15 original November 17 members convicted in the case remain in prison.

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Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece