NEWS

Lifer’s killer traced to jail corruption racket

An escaped convict has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow inmate out on a furlough, three days after the victim had written to government and judicial officials denouncing corruption in prison and voicing fears for his life, police said yesterday. Stelios Mathas, 50, was found dead in the Athens district of Kolonos on March 17, 2004, two days into his eight-day furlough from Corfu Prison, where he was 23 years into a life sentence. In a letter to the public order minister and the Supreme Court prosecutor, dated March 14, Mathas had revealed the existence, in Corfu Prison, of a gang of inmates and wardens who allegedly arranged furloughs for prisoners who could pay several thousand euros in bribes. The gang also allegedly smuggled hard drugs into the jail. Mathas said he had bought his furlough for 3,000 euros, and warned he dared not return to prison. «I will enter a monastery,» he wrote. «After all I have learned, I fear [gang members] will kill me, in or outside jail.» The lifer also warned that a fellow convict, drug dealer Alekos Kouidis, proposed to escape having bought himself a furlough. Kouidis, 55, eventually got his furlough and, according to police, used it to kill Mathas before violating his parole. He was arrested in Thessaloniki for drug dealing on January 13.

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