U.S. Slams Greece Over Terrorist Leader's Release

(MENAFN) The United States has sharply condemned a Greek appellate court's decision to free Alexandros Giotopoulos, the convicted ringleader of the now-dissolved terrorist organization 17 November, pressing Greek authorities to secure his return behind bars.

In a formal statement issued May 29, the U.S. State Department declared it was "deeply disappointed" by the Piraeus Court of Appeals ruling granting Giotopoulos conditional release — a decision that has drawn swift international backlash.

Giotopoulos, 82, was found guilty in 2003 of leading and orchestrating 17 November, a far-left Greek militant cell that waged a brutal decades-long campaign of targeted killings and bombings. He received one of Greece's harshest-ever sentences: 17 consecutive life terms plus an additional 25 years. He walked free from an Athens detention facility earlier this month after a judicial panel cited his advanced age as grounds for early conditional release.

The State Department underscored the gravity of 17 November's crimes, noting the group was responsible for the murders of four American government personnel — CIA station chief Richard Welch, Navy Capt. George Tsantes, Navy Capt. William Nordeen, and Air Force Sgt. Ronald Stewart — along with a British military attaché, a Turkish embassy staffer, and several high-profile Greek nationals.

Washington threw its weight behind a legal challenge filed May 25 by Greece's deputy supreme court prosecutor, who is seeking to annul the release on the basis that Giotopoulos had not fulfilled the minimum mandatory prison term. "We strongly support" those reversal efforts, the State Department said.

The U.S. government further pressed Athens directly, urging the Greek government "to do all it can to return Giotopoulos to prison."

Officials also stressed that Giotopoulos has never acknowledged his role in the killings nor shown any remorse, reinforcing Washington's position that "terrorism must never be tolerated or excused."

The controversial ruling has reignited scrutiny of 17 November — one of Europe's most feared and long-running militant organizations — which conducted assassinations and bombings across nearly three decades before Greek authorities dismantled it in 2002.

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