To prison returned Alexandros Giotopoulos has returned to prison as the criminal division of the Supreme Court sitting in full session decided to overturn the ruling of the Piraeus Court of Appeals.
At approximately 6 p.m. , a police unit rushed to the home where Giotopoulos resides , in order to take him back to prison.
The “Lambros” of 17N left his home at 6:20 p.m. and got into a taxi, accompanied by his lawyer, through whom, escorted by the police, he returned to Korydallos prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Although Giotopoulos, who was sentenced to 17 life sentences and an additional 25 years in prison, walked out of the prison gates two weeks ago, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Sophocles Logothetis, who reviewed the case file, recommended filing an appeal against the ruling, expressing the view that in the case of Giotopoulos , the legal conditions for conditional release are not met.
At the heart of the prosecution’s argument was the assessment that the case of Giotopoulos 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.
The overturning of the decision means that the ruling of the Piraeus Court of Appeals “disappears” 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 the one charted 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.”
