NEWS

Hunger striker awaits court verdict on release from custody

A council of appeals court judges is expected to issue a decision in the next few days on whether Costas Sakkas, an anarchist who has been on hunger strike for more than a month, should be released from custody after being held for 31 months without trial.

Sakkas was arrested after being connected to the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire urban guerrilla group. He says he wasn’t part of the organization and began his hunger strike after being denied release last month even though the maximum pretrial detention period is 18 months.

A doctor at Nikaia Hospital, where he is being treated, said that Sakkas has lost 20 percent of his body weight and is at risk of dying soon.

Police detained 11 people near the Acropolis on Wednesday during a march by about 100 protesters demanding Sakkas’s release.

The demonstrators complained police used unnecessary force, while authorities said they intervened because some were daubing walls with graffiti.

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