Ex-prison governor to face disciplinary council over Xeros
The former governor of Attica’s Korydallos Prison, Maria Stefi, is to face a disciplinary council after Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou decided Tuesday that she should answer to charges of gross negligence following the escape of November 17 convict Christodoulos Xeros, who absconded while on furlough from the prison earlier this month.
Stefi was transferred to a post at another prison last week to allow an investigation to get under way into why Xeros received lenient treatment while serving multiple life sentences at Korydallos.
Two of Stefi’s deputy wardens and two social workers who sat on the council which approved a string of furloughs for Xeros also face disciplinary action. They all face temporary suspension from their posts.
Athanasiou’s decision came just a day after Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani ordered that the two prosecutors who sat on the council that granted Xeros leave should face disciplinary action.
The two prosecutors face temporary suspension from their duties, as do 17 Korydallos employees who are under scrutiny as part of the broader probe into the treatment received by the 55-year-old convict while at the Athens prison.
According to a report by Piraeus prosecutor Evangelos Zacharis, the two prosecutors who sat on the prison council showed “gross negligence” that “struck a blow to the prestige of justice.” His report includes the testimonies of prison guards who were on duty on New Year’s Eve, which Xeros spent with jailed members of another guerrilla group, Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, and who allegedly claimed that the decision to allow the N17 convict to meet with the detained guerrillas was taken two years ago.
Xeros appeared in a video posted online last week pledging a return to terrorism.
