Alexandros Giotopoulos is being called to return to prison, as the criminal division of the Supreme Court, sitting in full session, has decided to overturn the ruling of the of Appeals of Piraeus.
Alexandros Giotopoulos is ordered to return to prison, as the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court, sitting as a panel, decided to overturn the ruling of the Piraeus Court of Appeals that had granted him release from prison.
Although Giotopoulos, who was sentenced to 17 life terms and an additional 25 years in prison, passed through the prison exit gate two weeks ago the prison gates two weeks ago, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Sophocles Logothetis, who reviewed the case file, recommended an appeal against the ruling, expressing the view that in Giotopoulos’s case, the legal conditions for conditional release are not met.
At the heart of the prosecutor’s argument was the assessment that Giotopoulos’s case falls under Law 4855/2021, which stipulates, among other things, that “a convicted person serving multiple life sentences may be released if they have served twenty-five (25) years” and not under the previous law, which required an actual sentence of 19 years, on which the Piraeus Court of Appeals based its decision.
What does the reversal mean?
The reversal of the decision means that the ruling of the Piraeus Court of Appeals is “overturned” and the ruling of the Misdemeanor Court, which had denied Giotopoulos parole, is reinstated. Consequently, he will return to prison immediately, while the matter will be reexamined by the Piraeus Court of Appeals with a different panel.
Of course, the Piraeus Court of Appeals can no longer follow any path other than that set by the Supreme Court, as the same law (4855/2021) amended Article 524 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and added a third paragraph, which stipulates that “the decisions of the plenary session and the divisions of the Supreme Court are binding on the courts dealing with the same case, with respect to the legal issues they have resolved.”
