A drug addict who fired shots at the home of Costas Simitis when he was prime minister four years ago was jailed yesterday for three years and two months after an Athens court found him guilty of causing serious damage and illegally carrying and using a firearm.

Dimitris Aivatzidis, 42, said he regretted the incident and claimed he had not meant to harm anyone. The defendant added that he had been in a poor mental state because he lost a place in a drug rehabilitation program.

The court accepted his defense that he had acted with diminished responsibility.

Aivatzidis shot at the entrance to Simitis’s apartment block in Kolonaki on June 8, 2002, as part of a rampage through Athens during which he shot at two policemen and burnt a car.

The former PASOK leader sent the court a letter saying that he did not want to press charges against the 42-year-old. Aivatzidis is currently serving a jail sentence for causing an explosion outside the offices of the Organization Against Drugs (OKANA).