Gov’t backs down on N17
Convicted November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas yesterday ended a 32-day hunger strike that has seriously threatened his health after the government agreed to slightly improve detention conditions for the 15 imprisoned members of the far-left group. Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras called a special press conference to announce that the convicts’ demands for the removal of high wire structures that enclosed and roofed their prison yard had been met. «Justice, and by extension our democratic system of government, is judged by its human face,» Papaligouras said, insisting that the terrorists enjoy «better living conditions, compared to other inmates.» Seven members of the group that killed 23 people in a spree of attacks between 1975 and 2000 were participating in the hunger strike, but Koufodinas’s was the longest protest.
