Koufodinas stops hunger strike after Supreme Court orders judges to reconsider his furlough request

Convicted November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas on Thursday called off a hunger strike that he had started after he was denied his 7th furlough from prison, following a Supreme Court decision that ordered the Volos justices’ council to reconvene and reconsider his request.

His lawyer Ioanna Kourtovik said her client considered Thursday’s ruling “an important step in establishing the right to furlough for all prisoners...relating to both the formal and substantive conditions for access to exercising this right.”

She said he would be remaining in a hospital ICU for several days until he recovers and gradually returns to eating normally, and then in an ordinary hospital bed until he is once again capable of moving about.

The denial of Koufodinas’ petition for furlough by the Misdemeanours Justices’ Council of Volos was contested by the Supreme Court prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou, who filed an injunction that was heard before a section of the Supreme Court on Thursday. This found that even prisoners sentenced to multiple life sentences have the right to get regular furloughs and found flaws in the reasoning of the Volos Council’s decision.

Following the Supreme Court ruling, the case file will return to the Volos' Council, which must convene with a different composition than last time and which will give the final word whether the terrorist fulfills both “formal and substantive” conditions for a furlough of a few days.